MINING
Rio eyes carbon neutral
Rio Tinto PLC yesterday said that it wanted to be carbon neutral by 2050, as it booked a profit of US$10.4 billion last year, up 18 percent from 2018. The company said that it aims for a 15 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 from 2018 levels and “net-zero emissions from our operations by 2050.” The target would cover its own operations, but not emissions from upstream or downstream activities. The firm said that it would spend approximately US$1 billion on “climate-related” projects over the next five years.
BEVERAGES
Diageo warns of profit loss
Diageo PLC yesterday said that the spread of COVID-19 in China and the Asia-Pacific region could knock up to US$260 million off its profit this year as bars and restaurants remain closed. The London-based company, whose brands include Johnnie Walker, said that the virus could affect its organic net sales and organic operating profit by between ￡225 million and ￡325 million (US$291.7 million and 421.4 million) and ￡140 million to ￡200 million respectively. It said that these ranges exclude any impact of the virus on any other markets.
MANUFACTURING
Firms look outside China
More than one-quarter of businesses grappling with COVID-19 in Asia say that they are setting up or using supply chains that reduce their reliance on China, a survey released yesterday by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore showed. About 28 percent said that they were making such adjustments, and 14 percent said that they were shifting some or all of their supply chains outside of China, the poll conducted from Feb. 12 to Tuesday last week found. About two-thirds of members are US-based companies.
AIRLINES
Cathay staff take leave
More than 25,000 Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) staff are taking unpaid leave amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Chief executive officer Augustus Tang (鄧健榮) said in an internal memo that challenges “remain acute,” and he thanked employees for their support. The Hong Kong-based airline this month asked its 33,000 workers to take three weeks off between Sunday and June 30. Most staff have taken the offer, but the acceptance rate is lower for pilots and cabin crew, a person familiar with the plan said.
INTERNET
Samsung site reveals info
Samsung Electronics Co on Tuesday said that a “technical error” caused its UK Web site to display other customers’ personal information. The company said that the error affected fewer than 150 customers on the site. People who logged on were able to see someone else’s name, phone number, address, e-mail address and previous orders. Samsung said that it did not leak card details.
TECHNOLOGY
Facebook buys game studio
Facebook Inc on Tuesday said that it has acquired development studio Sanzaru Games to join its Oculus gaming group. Sanzaru has produced a number of games, including Sonic the Hedgehog and Marvel Studios franchises, its Web site shows. The “vast majority” of Sanzaru’s nearly 100 employees would join Oculus, including the company’s founders, but would operate independently out of its existing offices, Facebook said. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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