AUTOMAKERS
Honda expects profit
Honda Motor Co forecast profit for the current fiscal year, slightly exceeding analysts’ projections, thanks to a recovery in automobile production, drops in some material prices, as well as robust sales of motorcycles. Honda also said it plans to buy back as much as ￥200 billion (US$1.5 billion) of its own shares. Operating profit for the period through March next year would be ￥1 trillion, the company said in a statement yesterday. That compares with analysts’ average projection for ￥996 billion. Honda said net sales are on track to reach ￥18.2 trillion, in line with the ￥18.1 trillion the market is looking for.
CHEMICALS
Bayer looks at low profit
Bayer AG expects profit this year would probably be at the lower end of its forecast amid falling prices for glyphosate, the key ingredient in its controversial weedkiller Roundup. The German conglomerate had anticipated core earnings per share for the year in the range of 7.20 euros to 7.40 euros. It now expects to hit the lower end of its targets, chief executive officer Werner Baumann said in a statement. In the first quarter, the company’s core earnings dropped 16 percent to 2.95 euros per share, a little above the 2.75 euros analysts had anticipated. Revenue fell to 14.4 billion euros (US$15.74 billion), roughly in line with estimates.
AVIATION
Emirates posts record profit
Long-haul carrier Emirates last year saw its most-profitable year ever, earning US$2.9 billion, the carrier said yesterday. Emirates’ annual report put revenue for the carrier at US$29 billion last year, up 81 percent from 2021’s figures of US$16 billion. That drastic swing came after the airline reported a US$1.1 billion loss in 2021. Earlier yesterday, Emirates announced that it would create a US$200 million fund for research and development projects aimed at reducing the use of fossil fuels in commercial aviation. The airline said the funding would be distributed over three years.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan profit tops estimates
Nissan Motor Co yesterday said that its full-year net profit slightly topped estimates and offered an upbeat forecast for the current fiscal year, despite warning of “challenging” conditions ahead. The Japanese automaker said it logged net profit of ￥221 billion for the year to March, just beating its prediction of ￥220 billion, and projected ￥315 billion for the coming year. The company said the gains were the result of sales improvements and cost-cutting, as well as favorable foreign exchange rate fluctuations. These helped offset the effects of an increase in raw material prices and inflation.
ITALY
Probe opened into Apple
The country’s antitrust regulator yesterday said that it has opened an investigation into tech giant Apple Inc for allegedly abusing a dominant position in the apps market. The Silicon Valley titan “has adopted a more restrictive privacy policy for third-party app developers than it applies to itself,” the competition watchdog said in a statement. The “alleged discriminatory conduct” could cause a drop in advertising revenues of third-party advertisers and prevent competitors from entering or remaining in the app development and distribution market, benefiting Apple’s own apps, it added.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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