AUSTRALIA
Canberra holds WTO case
The government is to temporarily suspend its WTO case against China over tariffs on barley, while Beijing undertakes a three-month review of the restrictions, in a potential breakthrough to the long-running dispute between the nations. Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) yesterday announced the agreement alongside Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell at a news conference in Adelaide, saying they were hopeful of a similar agreement for China’s tariffs on Australian wine. “We are hopeful that at the end of that review process the impediments that currently exist will be suspended or removed and that we can get back to normal trade with China,” Farrell said.
JAPAN
Buffett eyeing Japan stocks
Warren Buffett is turning his focus back to Japan as he intends to boost his investments in the country, the Nikkei reported. Shares of major trading houses — Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsui & Co, Marubeni Corp, Sumitomo Corp and Itochu Corp — yesterday rose after Buffett said he had raised Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s holdings in them to 7.4 percent from about 5 percent in 2020 and is looking to increase his exposure to Japanese stocks, the Nikkei report said. “This may encourage foreign investors to invest in Japanese stocks, especially in value stocks,” T&D Asset Management Co chief strategist Hiroshi Namioka said.
SOUTH KOREA
Regulator fines Google
The Korea Fair Trade Commission has fined Alphabet Inc’s Google 42.1 billion won (US$31.83 million) for blocking the release of mobile video games on a competitor’s platform. The commission yesterday said that Google bolstered its market dominance, and hurt local app market One Store’s revenue and value as a platform, by requiring video game makers to exclusively release their titles on Google Play in exchange for providing in-app exposure between June 2016 and April 2018. Game makers affected by Google’s action include Netmarble Corp, Nexon Co and NCSOFT Corp, as well as other smaller companies, the antitrust regulator said.
NEW ZEALAND
House sales tumble
House sales fell to a record low in the three months through December as interest-rate hikes and plunging property prices pushed buyers to the sidelines. Sales of residential and lifestyle properties fell to 13,890 in the fourth quarter last year, which was the lowest since records began in 1990, according to CoreLogic New Zealand data published yesterday by the Reserve Bank in Wellington. The volume is below the previous low of 15,579 seen during the 2008 global financial crisis. The CoreLogic data includes all settled property sales and the third-quarter sales were revised to 15,880 from 14,996 previously.
AVIATION
Airbus deliveries down 9%
Airbus SE delivered 127 jets in the first quarter, a 9 percent drop from a year earlier, as shortages of parts such as engines spilled into the new year. Deliveries totaled 61 aircraft in March, the world’s biggest maker of commercial jetliners said yesterday in a statement. The lower first-quarter tally would make it harder for Airbus to reach its goal of increasing deliveries to 720 aircraft this year. Airbus delivered 661 aircraft last year, after lowering its initial target. It handed over 140 jetliners in the first quarter of last year.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the