CHINA
More tax cuts planned
Beijing is planning more tax cuts this year than last year and pledged to step up support to struggling local governments to compensate for weaker revenue, Minister of Finance Liu Kun (劉昆) said yesterday. “Transfer payments by the central government to regional governments will increase by a large margin this year,” Liu said, without providing more details. The government granted 1.1 trillion yuan (US$173 billion) in tax breaks last year, with Liu saying that the amount would rise further this year.
AIRLINES
SAS seeks new capital
SAS AB yesterday said it would launch a new transformation program and look to raise new capital after reporting a wider quarterly loss than a year earlier. The airline, which is part-owned by the governments of Sweden and Denmark, reported a loss before tax of 2.60 billion kronor (US$275 million) for the November-to-January quarter after posting a loss of 1.92 billion kronor a year earlier. SAS said it would fully transform its business, aiming to save 7.5 billion kronor a year.
EQUITIES
Exchange to buy TORA
London Stock Exchange Group agreed to buy cloud-based technology provider TORA for US$325 million, the British stock exchange operator said yesterday, adding the rapidly growing digital assets class to its trading capabilities. The potential acquisition of TORA — which supports customers trading multiple asset classes, including equities, fixed income and digital assets across global markets — is expected to close in the second half of this year.
AUTOMAKERS
Ship fire losses tallied
A cargo ship carrying about 4,000 Volkswagen AG vehicles that caught fire last week could cost the automaker at least US$155 million, a risk-modeling company’s estimate showed. Of the roughly US$438 million total value of goods aboard the Felicity Ace, which went up in flames off the coast of Portugal’s Azores Islands, Russell Group said on Monday it estimates there are US$401 million of vehicles. VW group had Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini models on the vessel. Russell Group estimates automakers other than VW might have lost about US$246 million of vehicles.
GEMSTONES
Diamond sales surge
Botswana’s state-run diamond trader reported record revenue last year with sales surging almost fivefold after imports from the US recovered from a slowdown amid COVID-19 restrictions. Okavango Diamond Co sold US$963 million of rough diamonds last year, company spokesman Dennis Tlaang said. The revenue was the most since the company began operations in 2012, Tlaang said. Sales might rise further this year after De Beers pushed through one of its most aggressive diamond price increases in the past few years, he said.
SRI LANKA
Inflation hits new record
Inflation hit a record for the fourth consecutive month, official data showed yesterday as an economic crisis driven by a crippling foreign exchange shortage worsens. The National Consumer Price Index rose 16.8 percent last month from a year earlier, the fourth consecutive record rise and more than double October’s figure of 8.3 percent. The record highs came as the nation struggles to find dollars to finance imports including food, fuel and medicine.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
REACTIONS: While most analysts were positive about TSMC’s investment, one said the US expansion could disrupt the company’s supply-demand balance Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) new US$100 billion investment in the US would exert a positive effect on the chipmaker’s revenue in the medium term on the back of booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from US chip designers, an International Data Corp (IDC) analyst said yesterday. “This is good for TSMC in terms of business expansion, as its major clients for advanced chips are US chip designers,” IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) said by telephone yesterday. “Besides, those US companies all consider supply chain resilience a business imperative,” Zeng said. That meant local supply would
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