■ TRADE
Malaysia, India eye FTA
Malaysia and India will begin negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) in January, a report said yesterday. Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz was quoted as saying that a bilateral trade pact could boost Malaysia's exports to India by 1.3 times, or US$12 billion, by 2012. The talks would aim for a comprehensive bilateral agreement covering goods and services, investments and economic cooperation, the New Straits Times newspaper reported her as saying. Last year, India was Malaysia's ninth-largest trading partner, ninth-largest export destination and 17th-largest import source.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Fiat to invest in Brazil
Fiat is to invest nearly US$3.4 billion in South America's biggest car market, Brazil, over the next three years to boost in-country production, the CEO of the automaker, Sergio Marchione, said on Friday. The lion's share of the investment -- US$2.8 billion -- will go to expanding a factory that the company already has in the state of Minas Gerais, Governor Aecio Neves told reporters. The expansion will push the plant's production from a current 700,000 vehicles per year to more than 1 million in 2010, Neves said following a meeting with Marchione and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
■ BANKING
BoCom, HSBC to team up
Bank of Communications Ltd (BoCom, 交通銀行), part-owned by HSBC Holdings Plc, plans to cooperate overseas with the UK bank, BoCom chairman Jiang Chaoliang (蔣超良) said. The Chinese lender is seeking overseas acquisitions and branches, Jiang said yesterday at a conference in Beijing, without elaborating. The Shanghai-based lender in April raised US$3.3 billion in a Shanghai share sale. HSBC, Europe's biggest bank by market value, raised its ownership in BoCom to 19 percent from 18.6 percent after buying 172.5 million shares on the open market for HK$2.16 billion (US$278 million) on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24. The London-based bank has said it wants to return its holding in BoCom to 19.9 percent.
■ MINERALS
Rusal wants Norilsk stake
Aluminum giant United Company Rusal said on Friday that it would acquire a stake of 25 percent plus one share in metals conglomerate OAO Norilsk Nickel from former general director Mikhail Prokhorov if his former business partner does not buy him out. In exchange for turning over the stake in Norilsk to Rusal, Prokhorov's Onexim group will receive 11 percent of shares in Rusal plus an undetermined amount of cash, Rusal and Onexim said in a joint statement. However, the statement said, "the transaction is conditional upon non-acceptance of an offer to buy 25 percent of Norilsk Nickel made by Onexim to Vladimir Potanin." Potanin owns Norilsk Nickel.
■ ELECTRONICS
Sanyo disputes report
Sanyo Electric Co said a Nikkei newspaper report that it plans to book an additional ¥100 billion (US$926 million) loss for fiscal year 2000 is a "presumption" and that auditors were still finalizing past earnings. The company will make the auditor's report public when it is completed, Sanyo said in a statement to the stock exchange yesterday. Sanyo undervalued losses at poorly performing semiconductor and liquid-crystal-display units during a review of unconsolidated earnings for the period from fiscal 2000 to 2005, the Nikkei said yesterday. The additional loss would mean Sanyo was operating at a loss, the report said.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process