CHINA
Industrial profits decline
Profits at industrial firms kept dropping last month, reflecting the impact of soft demand and factory-gate deflation. Profits last month were down 12.6 percent from a year earlier, data published yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed. For the January-to-May period, profits declined 18.8 percent, which was somewhat slower than the almost 21 percent drop in the first four months. Profits at foreign companies fell 13.6 percent in the first five months, slightly slower than in the January-to-April period. Profits at private firms dropped 21.3 percent, while profits at state-owned enterprises declined 17.7 percent, bureau data showed.
THAILAND
Chinese arrivals disappoint
The nation is likely to miss its goal of hosting 30 million foreign tourists amid fewer-than-expected visitors from China, RHB Bank Bhd said. Inbound arrivals from China could drop slightly below 5 million, way below the 7 million expected by the government, RHB Bank senior economist Barnabas Gan wrote in a note. The possibility of China’s economic activity slowing in the second half of this year would crimp demand for outbound tourism, he said. Foreign arrivals from Jan. 1 to Sunday reached 12.5 million, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports said.
JAPAN
Fish diet gets costly
A healthy eating habit of adding fish to their diets is getting increasingly more expensive for older adults in Japan, as the price of fish increased 14.8 percent last month compared with the year before, while gains in meat price tags remained at a more modest 8.6 percent, data released by the Statistics Bureau of Japan showed. That means the nation’s elderly aged 70 or older, who spent an average of more than ￥7,000 (US$48.49) on fish per month, are feeling a much larger inflationary hit than younger people. Japanese aged 20 to 29 spent less than one-third of that amount on fish. Fish remains a major source of protein in the nation and is particularly important for senior citizens to help reduce loss of muscles and brain cells.
APPAREL
Low, high-priced shops win
Off-price retailers and luxury chains are outperforming apparel retailers in the US, new data showed, as middle-market stores get squeezed by low-income shoppers who are priced out and wealthy consumers who would rather splurge. A report from Placer.ai said that foot traffic to off-price, luxury and secondhand retailers surged last month from January 2019. Over the same period, traffic to apparel retailers fell. “Whether this growth momentum continues will likely hinge on whether inflation continues to fall and how apparel chains choose to approach the upcoming back to school and holiday season,” the company wrote.
PHARMACEUTICALS
AstraZeneca invests in trees
British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC yesterday announced it would invest US$400 million to plant more than 200 million trees by 2030 as part of its strategy for reducing carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. The commitment represents about US$60 million a year, for one of the UK’s most valuable listed companies, which has a market capitalization of about US$230 billion. AstraZeneca made about US$44 billion in revenue last year. The company announced earlier this month that it would switch to biogas produced from cow manure and food waste in the US to cut its carbon emissions there.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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