Media
Bloomberg denies report
Bloomberg LP has no interest in acquiring either Dow Jones or the Washington Post, a Bloomberg LP spokesman wrote on Twitter. “There have been no conversations with anyone or either organization about an acquisition,” spokesman Ty Trippet wrote on Twitter, a comment that was retweeted by billionaire owner Michael Bloomberg. News Web site Axios reported on Friday that Bloomberg was interested in acquiring either Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, or the Washington Post from Amazon.com Inc CEO Jeff Bezos. A spokesperson for the Washington Post, which Bezos bought in 2013, said on Friday it was not for sale.
China
Budget deficit could rise
China might need to set a budget deficit target at above 3 percent of GDP next year, as the country strives to improve its economic performance, former finance minister Lou Jiwei (樓繼偉) said. Fiscal policy should continue to focus on cutting taxes and fees, Lou said on Sunday at a forum. A deficit ratio of above 3 percent would be higher than the target of 2.8 percent set for this year. He also suggested increasing the quota for local governments to issue special bonds. Part of that could still be used to cut the outstanding implicit debt of local governments, said Lou, who stepped down as finance minister in 2016.
Japan
Insurers to halt coverage
Japan’s buyers of Russian liquefied natural gas are assessing how imminent changes to shipping insurance — triggered by the ongoing war in Ukraine — would affect supplies from the key Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s Far East. Three Japanese insurance companies — Tokio Marine Holdings Inc, Sompo Holdings Inc and MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc — would stop providing cover for marine hull war risks in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian territorial waters from Jan. 1, the companies said. Any further disruption in shipments of the fuel would add to difficulties for Japan, which relies heavily on imports, particularly from Sakhalin.
Russia
Rosatom exports increase
Rosatom expects its exports growth to hit 15 percent this year, while its foreign order portfolio has remained stable at US$200 billion, the state nuclear energy company’s chief executive officer Alexei Likhachev told the newspaper Izvestia. “[Exports will grow] by about 15 percent, but one must understand that this is far from the limit,” Izvestia quoted Likhachev as saying in remarks published yesterday. The growth comes, among others, from contracts already being implemented, supplies of fuel, enriched uranium products, as well as conversion services, Likhachev said. It also includes the construction of 23 nuclear power units at projects in a dozen countries, he added.
Cinema
Avatar popular on opening
Walt Disney Co’s science-fiction epic Avatar: The Way of Water battled winter storms in the US and Canada to bring in an estimated US$56 million in ticket sales over the weekend. It garnered another US$168.6 million in theaters internationally over the weekend, for a total haul of US$855.4 million globally since its Dec. 16 release, Disney said in a statement. The company predicted the film would take in US$82 million domestically over the four days after Christmas.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
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