South Korea
Truckers go on strike
Truck drivers are on strike for the second time in less than a year, targeting major ports in a bid to disrupt key exports from autos to petrochemicals. The strike began yesterday, with demonstrations at 16 sites across the country. The Cargo Truckers Solidarity Union, which represents 25,000 workers, earlier this week said it planned to block all ports in the country. The work stoppage threatens a repeat of the union’s actions in June, when protests caused production disruptions costing about 1.6 trillion won (US$1.2 billion). Auto, petrochemical, steel and other key industries were hit as companies from POSCO Holdings Inc to Hyundai Motor Co curbed output. A lengthy dispute could affect global supply chains, as the country is the largest exporter of memory chips and is home to some of the world’s biggest automakers.
United States
Gene therapy approved
Regulators approved CSL Behring’s hemophilia B gene therapy, a one-off infusion that frees patients from regular treatments, but costs US$3.5 million a dose, making it the most expensive medicine in the world. CSL Behring’s Hemgenix, administered just once, cut the number of bleeding events expected over the course of a year by 54 percent, a study found. It also freed 94 percent of patients from time-consuming and costly infusions of Factor IX, which is used to control the potentially deadly condition. “While the price is a little higher than expected, I do think it has a chance of being successful because 1) existing drugs are also very expensive and 2) hemophilia patients constantly live in fear of bleeds,” Loncar Investments chief executive officer Brad Loncar said.
Energy
LNG supplies tighten
Asia’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) spot price rallied to the highest level since early last month on concern that disruptions to production and the arrival of colder weather in key markets could tighten supply. The Japan-Korea Marker, North Asia’s LNG benchmark, jumped 20 percent in the week through Wednesday to US$34.24 per million British thermal units, traders said. An ongoing outage at a key US export plant and forecasts for frigid weather in Europe are boosting global competition for the fuel this winter, and potentially curbing shipments to Asia, the traders said. Although LNG importers such as Japan and China are optimistic that they have secured enough fuel for winter, supplies remain tight and a sudden cold snap in those nations could quickly deplete inventories. Asia is in direct competition with energy-starved Europe for a dwindling amount of available LNG.
Sweden
Interest rates rise to 2.5%
The Riksbank raised borrowing costs by 75 basis points, sustaining its heightened aggression against stubborn inflation even as the economy succumbs to a likely recession. In his final decision as central bank governor, Stefan Ingves and his colleagues lifted the key interest rate to 2.5 percent, the highest since 2008. “The forecast shows that the policy rate will probably be raised further at the beginning of next year and then be just below 3 percent,” the Riksbank said. The risk that “current high inflation will become entrenched is still substantial, and it is very important that monetary policy acts to ensure inflation falls back.” The inflation measure tracked by officials would average 5.7 percent next year, forecasts released with the decision said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San