■ APPAREL
Wacoal goes domestic
Thailand’s largest lingerie-manufacturer has refocused on the domestic market amid predictions that US demand for women’s underwear will feel the pinch as a result of the financial crisis, news reports said yesterday. “We can’t rely much of the export market because the crisis will make other countries suspend orders,” said Amnuay Bumroongwongtong, managing director of Thai Wacoal. Amnuay said Thai Wacoal had yet to receive any cancellations of orders but he predicted the US market for lingerie would “dry up” next year.
■BANKING
ANZ subsidiary approved
Vietnam has given the go-ahead for Australia’s ANZ bank to set up a wholly owned subsidiary based in Hanoi, an official statement said yesterday. ANZ will be allowed to operate for 99 years, an online statement by the State Bank of Vietnam said, citing a license signed on Thursday. The bank, which has been operating in the country since 1993, already has retail and institutional businesses in the country and holds a 10 percent stake in Sacombank, Vietnam’s leading commercial bank.
■LABOR
Coke plant ousts protesters
A Coca-Cola bottling company in Venezuela retook control of a distribution plant from protesting ex-workers on Friday, ending a standoff that the company says cost it about US$9 million. Coca-Cola FEMSA de Venezuela SA recovered control on Friday of all its distribution centers that were blocked by former contract workers and transport workers, company legal director Rodrigo Anzola said. He told reporters the Mexican-owned company received help from police.
■MEDIA
Viacom trims outlook
Viacom Inc is trimming its outlook for the year, blaming slowing advertising revenue and the souring global economy for the decline. Viacom said its full-year net earnings from continuing operations would grow in the “mid-single to low double-digit” percentage range, down from the “low double-digit” growth it predicted in July, based on a 2 percent decline in global ad revenues. Viacom earned US$2.36 per share last year. The media company is a media conglomerate that owns MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures.
■INTERNET
YouTube goes full-length
YouTube said on Friday it is adding full-length television shows to the menu at its globally popular Web site famous for snack-sized video snippets. Episodes of classic television programs including Star Trek, MacGyver and Beverly Hills 90210 will be available in a “theater view” format unveiled at YouTube earlier this week. “We are starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you,” the Google-owned Web site said in a message posted online.
■SHIPPING
NOL drops Hapag-Lloyd bid
The Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) has dropped out of the race to buy German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd, NOL said. NOL, which is 66 percent owned by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, said in a statement late on Friday “it is no longer engaged in the bidding process for the sale” of Hapag-Lloyd. The Singapore firm’s binding offer submitted on Sept. 26 has lapsed, NOL said.
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
CARBON REDUCTION: ‘As a global leader in semiconductor manufacturing, we recognize our mission in environmental protection,’ TSMC executive Y.P. Chyn said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday launched its first zero-waste center in Taichung to repurpose major manufacturing waste, which translates into savings of NT$1.5 billion (US$46 million) in environmental costs a year. The environmental cost savings include a carbon reduction benefit of 40,000 tonnes, equivalent to the carbon offset of over 110 Daan Forest Parks, the chipmaker said. The Taichung Zero Waste Manufacturing Center is part of the chipmaker’s greater efforts to reach its net zero emissions goal in 2050, aligning with the UN’s 12th Sustainable Development Goal. The center could reduce TSMC’s outsourced waste processing
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