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.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
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