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.
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
Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) server makers are expected to make major investments in Texas in May after US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and amid his rising tariff threats, Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA, 台灣電子電機公會) chairman Richard Lee (李詩欽) said yesterday. The association led a delegation of seven AI server manufacturers to Washington, as well as the US states of California, Texas and New Mexico, to discuss land and tax issues, as Taiwanese firms speed up their production plans in the US with many of them seeing Texas as their top option for investment, Lee said. The
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