Evergreen Marine Corp (
Evergreen Marine, Asia's largest container shipping company by fleet size, had its rating cut to ``underperform'' from "neutral," CSFB analyst Peter Hilton said in a report dated yesterday.
Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海航運) and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) had their ratings cut to "neutral" from "outperform."
"The strong probability that 2006 will be a year of declining rates and profit requires" a conservative valuation, the report said.
The rating cut by CSFB came after Wan Hai's vice chairman Chen Po-ting (
Chen projected rates falling by 15 percent from now to then, the paper said.
In a move to ease market jitters following Chen's bearish guidance, Wan Hai vice president Jason Lee (
Lee, however, said the industry may see a cyclical downswing in 2007.
Still, Hilton said it is "too early to sell" as the "best exit point" is late first quarter next year. Asian container shipping companies may see earnings upgrades next year and the sector traditionally does well late into the first quarter, the report said.
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
SEMICONDUCTORS: Samsung and Texas Instruments would receive US$4.75 billion and US$1.6 billion respectively to build one chip factory in Utah and two in Texas Samsung Electronics Co and Texas Instruments Inc completed final agreements to get billions of US dollars of government support for new semiconductor plants in the US, cementing a major piece of US President Joe Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act initiative. Under binding agreements unveiled Friday, Samsung would get as much as US$4.75 billion in funding, while Texas Instruments stands to receive US$1.6 billion — money that would help them build facilities in Texas and Utah. The final deals mean the chipmakers can begin collecting the funding when their projects hit certain benchmarks. Though the terms of Texas Instruments’ final agreement is
Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and weaved on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs. Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the tough garments crafted at the small Momotaro Jeans factory in southwest Japan are designed to be worn for decades, and come with a lifetime repair warranty. On site, Yoshiharu Okamoto gently dips cotton strings into a tub of deep blue liquid, which stains his hands and nails as he repeats the process. The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan —
Japan ramped up its warnings against currency speculation on Friday after the yen slid to a five-month low following a hint from the central bank chief that he might wait longer than expected before raising interest rates. “The government’s deeply concerned about recent currency moves, including those driven by speculators,” Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We will take appropriate action if there are excessive moves in the currency market.” The yen regained some ground against the dollar after Kato’s remarks, strengthening to as much as ￥156.89 after earlier weakening to ￥157.93. The Japanese currency strengthened a little further after currency
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