AUTOMAKERS
European sales rise again
Auto sales in Europe last month rose for a ninth straight month as supply chains improved and automakers worked through backlogs of orders. New vehicle registrations increased 16 percent to 964,932, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said yesterday. While the recovery continues, deliveries during the first four months of the year remain roughly one-fifth below pre-COVID-19 levels. Automakers across the volume, premium and luxury segments have continued to post better results even as inflation remains elevated and concerns about the economic outlook deepen. Fully electric vehicles saw a nearly 50 percent increase in registrations compared with April last year, while sales of gas-fueled vehicles rose 15 percent. Orders for diesel-powered vehicles declined slightly.
BANKING
Commerzbank profit jumps
Germany’s second-biggest lender Commerzbank AG yesterday said that its net profit almost doubled in the first quarter, thanks to “a tailwind” from higher interest rates. The group said it made a bottom-line profit of 580 million euros (US$627.6 million), compared with 298 million euros over the same period a year earlier. Quarterly revenues fell slightly to just under 2.7 billion euros, from 2.8 billion euros a year earlier, Commerzbank said. The dip was partly due to charges set aside to cover legal costs at its Polish unit mBank, the lender said. “We had a very good start to 2023,” Commerzbank CEO Manfred Knof said in a statement. Looking ahead, the lender said it is aiming for a full-year net profit “well above that of 2022.”
PHARMACEUTICALS
FTC aims to halt Amgen bid
US regulators on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to block biopharmaceutical firm Amgen Inc’s proposed US$28 billion takeover of drugmaker Horizon Therapeutics PLC, saying that the transaction would harm consumers. In a suit filed in federal court, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said the deal would enable Amgen to entrench the monopoly positions of Horizon medications to treat thyroid eye disease and chronic refractory gout. In addition, Amgen has a history of granting rebates on popular medications in exchange for preferential placement of other products with insurers and pharmaceutical benefit managers, the FTC said. This practice might make it difficult, if not impossible, for smaller rivals to match the level of rebates that Amgen would be able to offer, it said.
TECHNOLOGY
Musk wrong: Microsoft CEO
Microsoft Corp is not in control of OpenAI Inc, CEO Satya Nadella said in an interview on Tuesday, disputing the allegation by Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk, who had said that Microsoft was effectively in control of the start-up. Small players very much have a chance to compete against large firms such as his and Alphabet Inc’s Google, Nadella said. The Microsoft CEO said OpenAI’s board was steering the ship, contradicting Musk, who pulled out of the start-up years ago. “OpenAI is very grounded in their mission of being controlled by a nonprofit board,” Nadella said. “We have a non-controlling interest in it, we have a great commercial partnership in it.” The ability of smaller companies to break into artificial intelligence would “depend on product-market fit,” and it is not guaranteed that Microsoft and Google would be “the only two games in town,” Nadella said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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