SOFTWARE
Infosys sales forecast limps
Infosys Ltd forecast sales that lagged estimates and warned that customers in key sectors like finance are pulling back, a sign of how far corporations are tightening their budgets to weather an economic slowdown. India’s second-biggest software services firm expects to post revenue growth of between 4 and 7 percent this fiscal year ending March next year. That compares with an average analyst estimate of 10.6 percent. “During the quarter, we saw unplanned project rampdowns in some of our clients and delays in decisionmaking, which resulted in lower volumes,” Infosys chief executive officer Salil Parekh said at a post-earnings news conference. For the quarter ending last month, Infosys posted a net profit of 61.3 billion rupees (US$749 million), a rise of 7.7 percent from the same period last year, it said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday.
JAPAN
Pay for women lags
Japanese women might have doubled their income over the past 20 years, but they still earn only one-quarter of what men are paid, government data showed. The average female monthly income was ￥83,896 (US$630) per month in February, a survey of households conducted by the Statistics Bureau of Japan released this month showed. While that is nearly twice what they were earning per month in 2000, it is far less than the average ￥345,645 salary for male workers, it showed. About 70 percent of female workers are employed in parttime or non-permanent jobs, which often mean lower pay and fewer opportunities for advancement.
SWEDEN
Inflation decelerates
Underlying inflation slowed for the first time in more than a year, raising hopes of a turnaround for the Nordic nation’s households and its central bank, which remains under pressure to raise borrowing costs. A price measure that strips out energy costs and the effect of interest-rate changes last month rose 8.9 percent from a year earlier, data from Statistics Sweden showed, marking a retreat from a three-decade high. That was lower than the 9.1 percent projected by economists, even though the level far exceeds the central bank’s estimate of a 7.5 percent rise. The Riksbank has said it expects to raise the key rate from 3 percent when the executive board gathers on April 25.
CHINA
Tariffs review announced
The Ministry of Commerce yesterday announced a review of its anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on barley imports from Australia, a major move toward reducing trade tensions between the two nations. The ministry gave details of the barley tariff review in a statement, confirming an earlier announcement from the Australian government on Tuesday. In return for the review, Australia has agreed to temporarily suspend its case against China at the WTO. The Chinese government said in the statement that the review would begin today and would finish within one year. The ministry said the decision had been made in response to a request from the China Alcoholic Drinks Association to end the tariffs. The association said the curbs are no longer necessary as domestic barley production cannot keep up with demand, and the cost pressures on beer manufacturers have increased following the war in Ukraine and global trade disruptions. Imports are China’s main source of barley, with Australia previously accounting for 60 to 70 percent of the market.
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
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