■TRADE
Geithner voices optimism
Efforts by the US and China to revive the global economy are starting to pay off, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said yesterday. Geithner made his comments at a meeting with President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) wrapping up two days of talks in Beijing. “We’ve already demonstrated the capacity of our two countries to work together on the global stage, to lay a foundation for economic recovery, and I think partly because of the strength of the actions put in place by your government and by [US] President [Barack] Obama we’re starting to see some early signs of stabilization and recovery in the global economy,” Geithner told Hu.
■JAPAN
Economy has hit bottom
The Asian giant’s economy likely bottomed out in the first quarter of this year, but is unlikely to recover until late this year or early next year, Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said yesterday. “I think that the economy has hit bottom” in the first quarter until March, he told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. “The economy will maintain this upward trend during and after the April-to-June quarter, and probably return to normal ... around the end of this year or by spring next year.” The country posted its worst growth figure during the January-to-March quarter as GDP shrunk by an annualized 15.2 percent.
■DEFENSE
Saab announces layoffs
Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab AB yesterday said it would lay off 370 office staff at its Saab Bofors Dynamics unit in Sweden. The company said staff in the central Swedish cities of Karlskoga, Eskilstuna and Linkoping, as well as in southwestern Goteborg would be affected by the layoffs. The redundancies will be implemented between this year and 2011 and are part of a long-term restructuring process, initiated as a result of declining orders from the Swedish armed forces, Saab said.
■COMPUTERS
EMC eyes Data Domain
US computer storage giant EMC Corp offered US$1.8 billion on Monday for Data Domain in a bid to counter a rival offer for the data storage company from NetApp. EMC, in a statement, said it was prepared to offer US$30 per share in cash for Data Domain, which NetApp offered to buy on May 20 for US$1.5 billion, or US$25 per share in a cash and stock deal. “EMC’s all-cash proposal is superior to the proposed NetApp transaction providing Data Domain stockholders greater value and certainty,” EMC said. “EMC’s all-cash offer represents a 20 percent premium to the cash and stock offer made by NetApp,” it said.
■AVIATION
Ryanair announces losses
Leading budget airline Ryanair reported its first annual pre-tax loss yesterday, saying it had gone into the red by 169 million euros (US$239 million) last year following a fuel bill increase of 59 percent. The loss run up by the end of March compared with a profit of 481 million euros in the previous year and came after Ryanair faced record oil prices and a hefty writedown on the value of its investment in rival Irish carrier Aer Lingus. The company said it had written down the value of its 29.8 percent stake in Aer Lingus by a further 222 million euros, after Aer Lingus’ share price fell.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
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