■RETAIL
German sales slip 1.8%
German retail sales slipped 1.8 percent in June from the previous month, disappointing expectations for a slight increase, provisional data released on Monday by the national statistics office showed. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had penciled in a modest rise of 0.5 percent for the biggest European economy. In May, sales fell 1.3 percent after gaining 1.4 percent in April, figures from the Destatis office showed. The office based its estimate for June on seven German states that represent around 76 percent of the country’s total retail sales. On a 12-month basis, sales shed 1.6 percent at constant prices, Destatis said in a statement.
■RETAIL
Metro bounces back
Germany’s biggest retailer, Metro, on Monday reported a second-quarter profit despite a drop in sales. Metro AG said it had reversed a 453 million euro (US$645.3 million) loss in the second quarter last year to post a net profit of 48 million euros in the three months to the end of June. Metro, which has operations in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern and Western Europe, said it was retaining its medium-term sales and earnings forecasts. This, despite the group reporting a 3.8 percent fall in revenue to 15.3 billion euros, with revenue hit by lower food prices and a weak performance by currencies in Eastern Europe.
■TELECOMS
CEO dies after triathlon
Calvin Lee, chief executive officer for Asia at Deutsche Telekom AG, died after he took part in a triathlon in Singapore yesterday, a company official said. Lee, 42, was pronounced dead at the Changi General Hospital at 2.35pm, the Straits Times reported. Paramedics and doctors failed to revive Lee after he was rescued from the sea during the swim segment of the Osim Singapore International Triathlon, the newspaper said. The cause of death is being investigated, the Singapore newspaper cited the organizers as saying.
■FINLAND
Trade surplus continues
The country posted its second consecutive trade surplus in May as falling orders prompted companies to cut output and import fewer raw materials. The surplus was 92 million euros, compared with a surplus of 683 million euros the month before and a surplus of 186 million euros a year earlier, Finnish Customs said on its Web site yesterday. The country’s industry, which has seen output plunge more than 20 percent in four out of five months this year, is purchasing fewer raw materials abroad, causing both imports and exports to drop. New industrial orders plummeted an annual 40 percent in May. Exports plunged 41 percent to 3.43 billion euros in May from a year earlier, the same as the decline in imports, which fell to 3.34 billion euros.
■ELECTRONICS
Panasonic books net loss
Japan’s Panasonic Corp yesterday announced a net loss of ¥52.98 billion (US$560 million) for the second quarter, blaming weak sales of electronic goods during the recession. Panasonic, which made a profit of ¥73.03 billion in the same period last year, left unchanged its forecast for a loss of ¥195 billion in the full business year to next March. The group, which changed its corporate name from Matsushita Electric Industrial in October, is cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants as it struggles to recover from its first annual loss in six years.
‘TOO TIRED’: The former mayor’s political party said that he had been questioned for nearly 19 hours, so he declined to be questioned at night, as he felt exhausted Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was arrested early yesterday morning after being questioned by prosecutors over his alleged role in a corruption scandal concerning the Core Pacific City redevelopment project during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The arrest was made after Ko refused to be questioned at night and attempted to leave the prosecutors’ office, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Prosecutors were worried that he would collude with others involved in the case to make false statements if they allowed him to leave, so they issued an order to arrest him, the office said. Ko yesterday sought a court
ECONOMIC RESILIENCE: Only 11.4 percent of Taiwan’s overseas investments last year were in China, and businesses are dispersing their investments elsewhere, Lai said China’s ambition to annex Taiwan is based on a desire to change the rules-based international order, rather than a desire for territorial gains, President William Lai (賴清德) said in an interview. During an appearance on the talk show The View With Catherine Chang, aired last night, Lai said China aimed to achieve hegemony, and that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait was an issue of worldwide concern. During the interview, Lai also discussed his “four-pillar plan” for peace and prosperity, which he first outlined in an article published by the Wall Street Journal on July 4 last year. That
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
Thirty Taiwanese firms, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), yesterday launched a silicon photonics industry alliance, aiming to accelerate the medium’s development and address the energy efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) devices like data centers. As the world is ushering in a new AI era with tremendous demand for computing power and algorithms, energy consumption is emerging as a critical issue, TSMC vice president of integrated interconnect and packaging business C.K. Hsu (徐國晉) told a media briefing in Taipei. To solve this issue, it is essential to introduce silicon photonics and copackaged optics (CPO)