AUTOMAKERS
Rivals closing in on Tesla
Daimler AG, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG are closing in and might pass Tesla Inc in the electric automaking industry, based on a ranking that factors strategy, battery technology, culture, supplier networks, partnerships and financial performance into an overall score. Tesla should remain No. 1 next year, according to the forecast by PA Consulting Group, but by 2021, Tesla will fall to seventh place, it said. By then, Daimler would be in the lead, followed by BMW, the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance and VW. Production issues with the Model 3 and an uncertain profit outlook were factors in the lower ranking for Tesla, PA Consulting said.
MACROECONOMICS
Singapore growth slows
Singapore’s economy expanded at a slower pace than forecast in the second quarter, clouding the outlook for the export-reliant city state at a time when global trade risks are rising. GDP rose at a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 1 percent from the prior three months, according to preliminary data from the Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Industry yesterday. The performance is weakest since a contraction in the first quarter of last year, data showed. GDP expanded 3.8 percent from a year earlier, compared with a median estimate of 4.1 percent, the ministry said.
MACROECONOMICS
Powell warns on tariffs
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell gave an upbeat assessment of the US economy, but said that a sustained period of high tariffs on a wide variety of imports could be harmful to growth. “The economy’s in a really good place,” Powell said on Thursday in an interview on American Public Media’s Marketplace program, adding that unemployment was at its lowest level in 20 years, while acknowledging the risk posed by escalating trade disputes. Should those disputes result in “high tariffs on a lot of products and a lot of traded goods and services” that “could be a negative for our economy,” he said. Powell added that inflation has gradually moved up.
EUROZONE
Bulgaria closer to joining
Bulgaria, the EU’s poorest country, on Thursday moved a step closer to joining the euro. After a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) said an evaluation could be completed in about a year. “The European Commission welcomes Bulgaria’s efforts to join the eurozone,” European Commission Vice President for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis said. “We might expect the ECB to complete its overall assessment in around a year,” members of the eurozone added in a statement.
FINANCE
Moryoussef guilty of rigging
Former Barclays PLC trader Philippe Moryoussef was in his native France when a London jury found him guilty of a conspiracy to rig an interest-rate benchmark that influences trillions of dollars of pensions and mortgages. He had left London days before the trial began in April. The jury took four days to find Moryoussef guilty, bringing seven years of investigations toward an end. He became the seventh person to be found guilty of interest-rate manipulation in the UK. Barclays was among banks that paid about US$9 billion in fines. Still, the UK Serious Fraud Office cannot be sure Moryoussef will ever end up in prison.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
EXPECTATIONS: The firm, which is on track to outpace global foundry industry revenue growth, said it expects constrained advanced process capacity amid stronger AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday increased its projected revenue growth for this year to above 25 percent, as stronger-than-expected demand for premium smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) devices are to drive greater utilization of cutting-edge 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer chips. In April TSMC estimated 21 to 24 percent annual growth. The firm’s revenue growth is on track to greatly outpace the global foundry industry, which is expected to rise about 10 percent this year. “Over the past three months, we have observed stronger AI and high-end smartphone demand from our customers, which is to boost the overall capacity utilization for our leading-edge
INVESTMENT: The company’s planned complex in Texas would be the first 12-inch silicon wafer fab built in the US in more than 20 years, a GlobalWafers official said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said it secured up to US$400 million in direct funding from the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act for the construction of two new advanced fabs in the US. Its subsidiaries GlobalWafers America and MEMC LLC are to build a 12-inch silicon wafer fab in Sherman, Texas, and another one in Missouri to produce silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers used to make leading-edge chips. “With the support of the [US President Joe] Biden Administration, we are honored to be bringing to American shores the world’s most cutting-edge 12-inch semiconductor
Nikon Corp is fielding strong demand for its legacy chipmaking machines in China, which is mobilizing resources to build its own semiconductor supply chain. Inquiries for the Japanese precision maker’s lithography tools have surged in China, Nikon president Muneaki Tokunari said. The company is set to revamp a lithography machine geared for decades-old manufacturing processes. Its NSR-2205iL1, launching this summer, would serve the market for mature chip technology and Nikon expects to sell more than 10 units of the machine annually, said Tokunari, who is also chief operating officer and chief financial officer. New companies are sprouting up in China to make