■AUTOMOBILES
BMW sales dipped last year
The German group BMW said yesterday that sales last year slipped 4.7 percent as the luxury car market was hit by the global recession, but added that it expected to sell more than 1.3 million autos this year. Group sales fell to 50.68 billion euros (US$70.64 billion), it said in a statement that provided provisional results. Final results are to be published on March 17, with the BMW chief saying the company expected to post a pre-tax profit. Germany’s leading high-end automobile group is placing hopes for this year in a new Series 5 sedan expected to be released in March.
■ELECTRONICS
Toshiba books smaller loss
Toshiba Corp said yesterday it booked a much smaller loss in the quarter ending last month compared with a year earlier, bolstered by a recovery in its electronic component business. The Japanese conglomerate said third-quarter net loss narrowed to ¥10.64 billion (US$118.5 million) from ¥121.14 billion. Quarterly revenue rose 6 percent to ¥1.58 trillion from ¥1.49 trillion. Toshiba lowered its revenue target for the full fiscal year through March, saying it now expected revenues of ¥6.4 trillion, down from an earlier forecast of ¥6.8 trillion. The company kept its forecast for a ¥50 billion loss for the year.
■ELECTRONICS
Fujitsu returns to profit
Fujitsu Ltd, Japan’s biggest computer-services provider, swung to a profit in the third quarter after the company sold its money-losing hardware businesses. Net income was ¥4.1 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a ¥40.8 billion loss a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement yesterday. Fujitsu posted a ¥112.4 billion loss last fiscal year. The company completed the sale of its hard-disk-drive business to Toshiba Corp in October and has agreed to outsource some chipmaking to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) to cut spending.
■INDIA
Central Bank retains rates
The central bank kept interest rates on hold yesterday, but moved to drain liquidity from the banking system to hedge off surging inflation without hurting economic recovery. The Reserve Bank of India boosted its cash reserve ratio — the sum commercial banks keep on deposit —by a higher-than-expected 75 basis points to 5.75 percent in what it said was a bid to tame “inflationary expectations.” Inflation last month surged to 7.31 percent year-on-year, propelled by soaring food prices. The two-stage increase, 25 basis points higher than analysts’ forecasts, will suck 360 billion rupees (US$7.7 billion) from the banking system. The rise was seen as a move toward monetary tightening after a period of aggressive easing to shield the country from the global slump.
■SOUTH KOREA
Industrial output up 33.9%
Industrial output last month jumped 33.9 percent from a year earlier, official data showed yesterday, as the economy continued to recover from the global slowdown. The steep rise was mainly attributed to a low base in December 2008, when industrial production dropped 18.7 percent year-on-year at the height of the slump, Statistics Korea said. Month-on-month output expanded 3.5 percent. Strong demand for semiconductors, cars and machinery contributed to the growth, it said.
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: MOFA demanded Beijing stop its military intimidation and ‘irrational behavior’ that endanger peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region The Presidential Office yesterday called on China to stop all “provocative acts,” saying ongoing Chinese military activity in the nearby waters of Taiwan was a “blatant disruption” of the “status quo” of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Defense officials said they have detected Chinese ships since Monday, both off Taiwan and farther out along the first island chain. They described the formations as two walls designed to demonstrate that the waters belong to China. The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it had detected 53 military aircraft operating around the nation over the past 24 hours, as well
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS