RIDE HAILING
China relaxes Didi curbs
Didi Global Inc (滴滴) has been given the green light to resume signing up new users, suggesting the worst is over for a ride-hailing giant that symbolized Beijing’s bruising campaign to rein in its powerful Internet industry. Beijing is again allowing Didi to bring in new users for the first time since regulators removed its main apps from stores in 2021, the company said in a statement on its Sina Weibo page. That suggests the services could soon return to the Apple and Android stores. Relaunching the apps is a prerequisite for Didi to resume business as usual, and to eventually work toward listing its stock in Hong Kong.
INDONESIA
Workers die in clashes
Two workers were killed in clashes and rioting at an Indonesian nickel smelting facility at the weekend, officials said yesterday, after violence erupted during a protest by a labor group demanding better pay and safety. An Indonesian and a Chinese worker were killed during the unrest at the PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry smelter, owned by China’s Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry Co (江蘇德龍鎳業), which involved protesters, workers and security personnel, said Didik Supranoto, a spokesperson for Central Sulawesi police. Several company vehicles were torched and about 100 dormitory rooms were damaged, Didik said, adding that 71 people were detained and operations at the smelter had been suspended.
SINGAPORE
Home sales plunge
Home sales last month tumbled for a third straight month to the lowest in almost 14 years, as a supply crunch kept buyers at bay. Purchases of new privately owned apartments fell to 170 units, from 259 the previous month, Urban Redevelopment Authority figures showed yesterday. That is the lowest since January 2009, when 108 homes were sold after the global financial crisis affected buyer sentiment. “The lackluster new sales could possibly be attributed to the year-end traditional seasonal lull period and a lack of new launches in the month,” said Nicholas Mak (麥俊榮), the Singapore-based head of research and consultancy at APAC Realty Ltd unit ERA Realty.
UNITED KINGDOM
Office purchases drop 88%
Almost nobody was buying offices in London in the final quarter of last year as market turmoil from now-abandoned government spending plans sent borrowing costs soaring. Less than ￡400 million (US$487.6 million) of offices in the capital were bought and sold in the final three months of the year, an 88 percent drop from a quarter earlier, CoStar Group Inc said. The dealmaking freeze — worse than the decline during the financial crisis or COVID-19 lockdowns — came as former prime minister Liz Truss’ proposals for unfunded tax cuts spooked markets.
CHEMICALS
Sika to sell assets to Ineos
Sika AG has agreed to sell some of its concrete additive assets to Ineos Group Ltd to win approval for the Swiss chemicals company’s acquisition of MBCC Group. The divestment of the assets, which generated net sales of 920 million Swiss francs (US$992.8 million) by the end of last year, is a key milestone in closing the acquisition, Sika said yesterday. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Ineos beat out private equity firms, including Cinven, CVC Capital Partners and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, people familiar with the talks said.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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