We need to find a fairer way of providing Goods and Services to the rest of the people on Earth.Cryptocurrencies and/or Gold Standard of money....maybe the answer to fight hyperinflation caused by too much printing of paper/fiat currencies by Governments and Central Banks all over the World. (https://nomorefiatmoneyplease.blogspot.com)
[TAIPEI] Taiwan further relaxed controls Friday on local high-tech companies expanding into China, with the aim of allowing them to compete with giants like Intel and Samsung on the mainland market.
Under the new regulations, Taiwanese manufacturers will be permitted to open a total of three plants manufacturing chips more advanced than were previously allowed.
But local chip makers will still be required to keep their Taiwan-produced technology a generation ahead of that made in mainland China, Chu Ping, spokeswoman for the Investment Commission, told AFP.
This is based on fears the island could lose a competitive edge over China, which still regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification - though ties have warmed since Ma Ying-jeou of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in 2008.
See who is talking about INTEL
Last 30 days:
23374
1420
2258
30 days avg
HOT COMPANIES
EasyJet +167% messages
Sport Direct Intl +118%
AstraZeneca +98%
Ashtead +78%
Barclays +77%
GKN +59%
ARM Holdings +39%
Glencore +38%
Hargreaves Lans +38%
Smith & Nephew +28%
Sport Direct Intl +118%
AstraZeneca +98%
Ashtead +78%
Barclays +77%
GKN +59%
ARM Holdings +39%
Glencore +38%
Hargreaves Lans +38%
Smith & Nephew +28%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is the world's leading microchip maker providing tailor-made services, counting Apple among its clients and the likes of Samsung and Intel among its rivals.
"Intel and Samsung have been investing in the mainland for a year, so our relaxing is already a bit late," Mr Chu said.
Taiwan's opposition, which favours independence from Beijing, has repeatedly warned against easing controls, fearing closer economic integration.
UK retailers post worst sales drop since financial crisis
[LONDON] British retailers had their biggest sales decline since 2008 last month as wet weather kept shoppers at home and tourist spending slowed.
Comparable sales in stores dropped 4.3 per cent, falling a fourth consecutive month, business advisory firm BDO said in its monthly report. The decline was led by a 5.5 per cent slump in sales at fashion retailers.
The figures make "sobering reading," Nick Bubb, an independent retail analyst, said by e-mail. BDO's fashion survey only covered "relatively upmarket" retailers, and was not representative of the mass market, he said.
Despite a recovering economy, only 47 pence of every extra pound in the pockets of UK consumers is going through the tills of retailers, with an increasing amount being spent on leisure activities and holidays, Exane BNP Paribas said in a research note Thursday.
Next Plc, Dixons Carphone Plc, Sports Direct International Plc and Home Retail Group Plc are all scheduled to report results next week. Next shares fell 3.6 per cent as of 1:04 pm in London, with Dixons Carphone shares down 2.9 per cent.
The strength of sterling means Britons are spending more on their holidays than at home. In the UK the reverse is true, with the strength of the pound meaning tourists have been more frugal, BDO said.
Summer rainfall levels in the UK were about 13 per cent more than the long-term average, the Met Office said last week, a factor that the management of Halfords Group Plc said this week was behind an 11 per cent drop in cycling sales.
BDO's monthly report covers the four weeks to August 30, meaning any extra consumer spending on the UK's summer public holiday, which was on August 31, will be reflected next month. The sales tracker surveys about 85 mid-tier retailers and includes a total of about 10,000 individual stores.
Air France threatens to cut flights, lay off workers
Air France's management ratcheted up pressure on workers to agree to a new restructuring plan, saying Friday the alternative is flight cuts and possible forced layoffs, union sources said.
PHOTO: AIR FRANCE
[PARIS] Air France's management ratcheted up pressure on workers to agree to a new restructuring plan, saying Friday the alternative is flight cuts and possible forced layoffs, union sources said.
Air France managed to reduce its workforce only through voluntary departures in its previous restructuring programme, but is now seeking to agree another 1.8 billion euros (S$2.8 billion) in cost savings as it comes under continued pressure from low-cost and Gulf carriers.
Management signalled "a 10 per cent drop in long-haul routes" if no deal is reached soon, said three labour leaders who met with management.
The possibility of forced layoffs was also evoked, two labour leaders said.
No precise numbers were mentioned.
Unions expect that between 9 and 14 routes could be cut, with each plane employing around 350 people.
Air France's management denied in June media reports that 3,300 jobs could go.
The airline is seeking to reach agreement on the new restructuring plan by the end of September, according to labour leaders, or says it will go ahead with the plan to cut routes.
It also has to resolve a dispute with pilots under the previous restructuring programme that would see parts of their compensation cut.
The airline shed 9 per cent of its workforce, or 6,413 employees, in 2012-2014 through voluntary departures and aims to entice another 800 to leave this year.
Nevertheless the airline has had trouble keeping up with competition, and an attempt last year to mount a major expansion of its low-cost unit sparked a costly strike by pilots that led management to backtrack.
Air France-KLM saw its losses deepen by 3 per cent in the first half of this year to 638 million euros.
[PARIS] European planemaker Airbus said on Friday that it won 754 orders in the first eight months of the year, boosted by an order surge last month that included one worth US$26.55 billion at list prices from Indian carrier IndiGo.
In addition to the order for 250 Airbus A320neo jets from India's biggest airline by market share, the planemaker sold 40 A320-family planes to an undisclosed customer, while British Airways and Vueling each ordered 10 A320neo aircraft.
Airbus delivered 397 aircraft in the period from January to August, according to its latest figures published on Friday. This included 17 A380 superjumbos.
Excluding cancellations, net aircraft orders totalled 708 in the period, Airbus added.
Mercedes-Benz August deliveries rise 53.1% in China
Daimler said sales of Mercedes-Benz cars rose 17.6 per cent in August boosted by an 81.3 per cent increase in registrations of its C-Class sedan and as demand in China once again defied a broader downturn with deliveries up 53.1 per cent.
PHOTO: AFP
[FRANKFURT] Daimler said sales of Mercedes-Benz cars rose 17.6 per cent in August boosted by an 81.3 per cent increase in registrations of its C-Class sedan and as demand in China once again defied a broader downturn with deliveries up 53.1 per cent.
Mercedes-Benz said on Friday it sold 139,802 cars in August, posting record sales for the 30th month in succession. Year-to-date 1,187,980 customers took delivery of a passenger car bearing the three-pointed star.
In China, demand for the locally produced C-Class sedan and the new GLA compact offroader helped to drive sales.
Growth is expected to continue given the launch of new vehicles such as the S-Class convertible, Ola Kaellenius, board member responsible for marketing and sales said.
Deliveries rose 10.5 per cent in Europe, and 4.8 per cent in the United States, Daimler said.
Sales of Smart vehicles rose 9.4 per cent in August to 6,317 registrations.
Confirmed MH370 wing part won't change search: Australia
Confirmation that a plane part that washed up on a remote island was from missing jet MH370 was useful but would not alter the search for the plane, Australian investigators said Friday.
PHOTO: AFP
[SYDNEY] Confirmation that a plane part that washed up on a remote island was from missing jet MH370 was useful but would not alter the search for the plane, Australian investigators said Friday.
Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, welcomed this week's news from France that the flaperon found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion was part of the missing Boeing 777.
"We have been working on the assumption that the flaperon was associated with MH370," Mr Dolan told AFP.
"It's useful to have formal confirmation of this, so it's good for us. But it hasn't actually made a significant difference to our search."
Australia is leading the difficult search in the southern Indian Ocean for the Malaysia Airlines plane which mysteriously diverted off course on March 8 last year and disappeared with 239 people on board.
Based on satellite analysis of the plane's likely trajectory, searchers are scouring the seabed off Australia's west coast, so far covering some 60,000 square kilometres (24,000 square miles) without result.
Mr Dolan said Australia was considering bringing in new vessels and equipment to take advantage of the upcoming southern hemisphere summer when the weather in the harsh and remote place will improve.
"We are currently reviewing the options available to us to see whether we will acquire other vessels and equipment for the summer period," he said. "We haven't made any decisions on that yet."
Mr Dolan said finding the flaperon, a two-metre (almost seven foot) wing part on Reunion, a French overseas territory, in late July was consistent with drift modelling based on the plane crashing in the search area.
"It hasn't changed our thinking about the search area," he said, adding that the flaperon also had not yielded any clues on what caused the plane to disappear en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
"All we know is that the flaperon at some point became detached from the aircraft and there are a range of possible scenarios from that," he said.
"We will watch developments obviously but at this stage we haven't seen anything that actually assists in refining or changing the search area."
Mr Dolan said he had hoped the flaperon would reveal more but had known from the start that, although interesting for the broader investigation, it was unlikely to assist in refining the search area.
The Australian official said he was still confident the plane would be found in the search area, which is scheduled to have been completely combed by the end of June 2016.
"There's still a lot of territory to cover and still a very high prospect that we will find the aircraft there," he said.
"If the aircraft is in the (search) area, which we think highly likely, then we will find it."
[FRANKFURT] Global demand for air freight dropped in July, and slowing global trade means it will be difficult for cargo markets in the coming months, a leading trade body said on Friday.
Air freight volumes dropped 0.6 per cent in July compared with the previous year, against a rise of 1.2 per cent for June, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its monthly air freight report.
IATA said the declines came across all regions except Africa and the Middle East and that the most pronounced declines were in the Americas.
"The combination of China's continued shift towards domestic markets, wider weakness in emerging markets, and slowing global trade indicates that it will continue to be a rough ride for air cargo in the months to come," IATA Director General Tony Tyler said in a statement.
Separately, the association released passenger data for July, showing a rise of 8.2 per cent in demand, measured by revenue passenger kilometres, boosted by a seasonal effect due to the timing of Ramadan this year.
Japan needs to tweak bid to stay in Indonesia railway race: minister
[JAKARTA] Japan must drop its requirement for government guarantees if it wants to stay in the race against China to build an Indonesian railway link from Jakarta to Bandung, a senior minister said on Friday.
"Japan's proposal includes a request for a government guarantee. Meanwhile China doesn't require that. That's the main difference," state-owned enterprises (SOEs) minister Rini Soemarno told reporters.
"So if Japan wants to stay in the process they must get rid of the requirement for government guarantees and government loan to SOEs."
Indonesia scrapped plans for the nation's first high-speed railway linking the two cities at the 11th hour on Thursday, but invited bidders China and Japan to submit new proposals for a slower line.
Scrapping Indonesia's bullet train leaves top investors confused
[JAKARTA] Indonesia's 11th-hour decision to scrap plans for the nation's first high-speed railway has sown confusion among top investors China and Japan, potentially undermining the strong foreign investment that has been a rare economic bright spot.
China and Japan had been battling over the multi-billion dollar contract, until it was abruptly pulled in what appeared to be the latest in a series of regulatory flip-flops and erratic policy-making moves under President Joko Widodo.
Indonesia's chief economics minister was left to explain to the two Asian giants on Friday the reason why Jakarta decided at the last-minute that the bullet train project was the wrong option for Southeast Asia's largest economy.
"It looks like a sudden move because the recommendation was made after a review of both proposals," Teten Masduki, presidential chief of staff, told Reuters. "But the recommendation is in the best interest of the country."
Tokyo and Beijing had lobbied heavily for the US$5 billion contract, each sweetening the terms of their bids up until Monday's deadline.
Analysts believed that whoever had won would likely have been the front-runner for future high-speed rail projects in Asia, including one linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
"It was the recommendation from independent consultants that suggested to the government that a medium-speed rail was a better option because the cost is cheaper and the time of the journey isn't much longer," Mr Masduki said.
President Joko announced late Thursday that a bullet train between the capital Jakarta and the textile city of Bandung was unnecessary, since it would never reach its maximum speed of more than 300 km (188 miles) per hour in between station stops.
The administration instead advocated a slower train for the 150 km journey and asked China, Japan, and others to submit new proposals. The government is expected to finalise details of the new project this month with the aim of starting construction by the end of the year.
China appeared on Friday to be the favourite for that contract.
"Japan's proposal includes a request for a government guarantee. Meanwhile China doesn't require that. That's the main difference," State-owned enterprises minister Rini Soemarno told a news conference. "So if Japan wants to stay in the process they must get rid of the requirement for government guarantees and government loan to SOEs."
The bullet train was initially intended to be the first phase of a 763 km rail link connecting Indonesia's two biggest cities, Jakarta and Surabaya.
The presidential palace said it still wanted to build a high-speed railway that covers the length of Java island, home to more than half the population of the sprawling archipelago.
A Chinese embassy official in Jakarta declined to comment until more information was provided by Indonesia.
"The project was a priority for China because it would have been one of the first and most visible manifestations of President Xi Jinping's 'One Belt, One Road' overseas investment drive," said Tom Rafferty, Beijing-based analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
"The decision therefore seems likely to dim China's confidence in the Indonesian market."
Yasuaki Tanizaki, Japan's ambassador to Indonesia, told reporters on Friday that he had "expressed my regrets" over the decision, but added he did not think it would affect Japan's investment in the country. He said Tokyo was waiting for details on the medium-speed rail project before deciding whether to participate.
The road to Thursday's decision was particularly bumpy for Tokyo, which had initially believed it won the contract in March after completing a more than US$3 million feasibility study. But Indonesia decided to invite other offers in order to get the best deal.
