UNITED KINGDOM
Strikes slow economy
The British economy stalled unexpectedly in February, when strikes crippled public services, but is still likely to perform better than the Bank of England has forecast. GDP was unchanged from January instead of eking out the 0.1 percent growth analysts had expected, the British Office for National Statistics said yesterday. The figure for January was revised upward to 0.4 percent. Together, the readings bring output in the UK above its pre-2020 level and suggest that the economy is unlikely to shrink in the first quarter. That further reduces the risk of a recession, but leaves the UK on track for an extended period of stagnation. Weak February figures reflect the effect of widespread strikes during the month. Services output fell 0.1 percent, hit by walkouts by teachers and civil servants.
GERMANY
Measures tame inflation
Inflation in Germany eased to 7.4 percent last month, mainly due to government measures to bring down energy prices, data showed yesterday. A downward trend was charted by the German Federal Statistical Office since annual inflation peaked at 10.4 percent in Europe’s biggest economy in October last year — revised to 8.8 percent by new methodology. The slowdown has been helped by easing energy prices as a result of European efforts to source liquefied natural gas and a huge government relief package. Berlin has committed 200 billion euros (US$220.5 billion) to help bring energy prices down until next year, including a cap on gas and electricity prices. Energy prices rose by only 3.5 percent year-on-year last month, after jumping by 19.1 percent in February and 23.1 percent in January. However, food prices rose by 22.3 percent, up from 21.8 percent in February and 20.2 percent in January.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Merck to boost US industry
The electronics subsidiary of German multinational pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA on Wednesday said it would spend US$300 million to expand its specialty gas production facility in eastern Pennsylvania in a step that state officials said would boost the area’s appeal to the fast-growing semiconductor industry. The subsidiary, EMD Electronics, said the expansion would create the world’s largest integrated specialty gas facility as part of its program to invest more than US$3.5 billion on projects by 2025, including at sites in Arizona, Texas and California. The state has pledged more than US$1 million for the expansion.
LUXURY BRANDS
China lifts LVMH sales
Chinese shoppers helped LVMH bounce back from the world’s strictest COVID-19 lockdowns and splashed out on luxury handbags and jewelry. The shares rose to a record. Organic sales at the group’s biggest unit, which sells fashion and leather goods, rose 18 percent in the first quarter, LVMH said on Wednesday. That is almost twice the gain that analysts were expecting from Europe’s most valuable company. The division’s growth in China hit a double-digit percentage, LVMH chief financial officer Jean-Jacques Guiony told analysts, adding that the company is “extremely optimistic” for China this year. Demand grew in every region in the first three months as shoppers snapped up luxury items from Christian Dior handbags to Tiffany rings. Japan saw the strongest quarterly growth, rising 34 percent on an organic basis, followed by a 24 percent uplift in Europe and a 14 percent jump in Asia outside of Japan.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
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