■ENERGY
Alaska approves pipeline
Alaska lawmakers have approved a state license for TransCanada Corp to pursue a natural gas pipeline. The approval ends a decades-long battle to open up North Slope natural gas for use on the North American market. The state Senate approved the bill on Friday; the House gave its approval last week. It only awaits the signature of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, who has backed the Canadian proposal from the start. The license does not guarantee construction, but TransCanada must move forward on federal permitting applications for the 2,735km pipeline, which is estimated to cost between US$26 billion and US$30 billion.
■AUTOMOBILES
Car sales drop in US
The lowest auto demand in the US since 1993, soaring fuel prices and a weak economy have impacted General Motors, Toyota and Chrysler, which on Friday reported a drop in sales last month. Troubled US car giant General Motors reported a 27 percent decline in US sales last month, as well as a massive second-quarter loss of US$15.5 billion, or US$27.33 per share. GM and its US competitors Ford and Chrysler have been hit by a fall-off in the sales of sports utility vehicles because of high gas prices and are now trying to switch production to smaller, more economical cars. Chrysler’s sales last month were 98,109 units, 29 percent below the same period last year.
■AVIATION
Airbus sells German plant
European aircraft maker Airbus said on Friday it had sold its plant at Laupheim in Germany to German armaments company Diehl and its partner Thales. No details were provided on the financial details of the sale, which is effective from Oct. 1 and is subject to competition authority approval. Diehl, based in Nuremberg in the southern German state of Bavaria, is to hold 51 percent of the company, while French defense concern Thales holds the rest. Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said the sale was a significant element in the implementation of the Power8 program aimed at cutting costs at Airbus.
■MARKET
Managua market destroyed
A huge fire destroyed Managua’s landmark Oriental Market, wiping out 1,500 vendor stalls and causing an estimated US$100 million in damage, local media reported early yesterday. The conflagration raged on Friday for 11 hours, destroying most of the sprawling Mercado Oriental, reputedly Central America’s largest market hall. No injuries were reported. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega promised merchants that the market hall would be rebuilt. The building had been the only one of Managua’s three main markets to survive the capital’s devastating 1972 earthquake.
■TELECOMS
India to auction airwaves
India said on Friday it plans a global auction for airwaves to offer high-speed third generation or 3G mobile phone services, a move seen reaping the government up to US$10 billion. The long-awaited announcement is expected to improve service and spur even greater growth in the world’s fastest-expanding mobile market, which has been adding 8 million new subscribers monthly. Communications Minister Andimuthu Raja said the license auction would be held by December. The government imposed a floor reserve price of 20.2 billion rupees or US$480 million for licenses, but bidding could go much higher, based on 3G auctions held elsewhere, for the 60 megahertz of spectrum up for grabs.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
RSS