China Business Digest: TSMC Won’t Sell Chips to Huawei in Fourth Quarter; Former HKMA Chief Norman Chan Sets Up Digital Payment Firm
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China’s consumer inflation slowed to a 19-month low in September. The world’s largest contract chipmaker TSMC said it will still be unable to supply chips to Huawei in the fourth quarter as a result of a U.S. ban, while chip equipment giant ASML said some sales to China don’t require a U.S. license.
— By Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com)
** TOP STORIES OF THE DAY
China’s consumer inflation slows in September
China’s consumer price index, which measures changes in prices of a select basket of consumer goods and services, rose 1.7% year-on-year in September, compared with a 2.4% increase the previous month, official data showed Thursday. (Read Caixin’s breakdown here)
Clock ticks for banks to comply with Trump’s Hong Kong sanctions
A U.S. report to Congress Wednesday named 10 officials, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and Xia Baolong, the head of China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, citing their roles in implementing a new security law in the former British colony. The State Department list reinforced sanctions imposed in August under an executive order that included one additional name.
Former HKMA chief Norman Chan sets up digital payment firm
Norman Chan Tak-lam, the former chief of Hong Kong Monetary Authority, set up a digital payment company to help trading businesses manage forex risks and facilitate cross-border payment, he said Wednesday.
TSMC won’t sell chips to Huawei in fourth quarter
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, will still be unable to supply chips to China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. in the fourth quarter as a result of a U.S. ban, the company said Thursday.
China to push commercialization of driverless agricultural machinery
China will promote the commercial application and market popularization of unmanned agricultural machinery, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported (link in Chinese) Wednesday, citing an official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. In the first six months of 2020, sales of automatic-driving agricultural machinery equipment and systems in China grew 213% year-on-year to 11,700 units, government data showed.
Trump administration to consider adding China’s Ant Group to trade blacklist
The U.S. State Department has submitted a proposal for the Trump administration to add China’s Ant Group to a trade blacklist, before the financial technology firm is slated to go public, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources.
It was not immediately clear when the U.S. government agencies that decide whether to add a company to the so-called Entity List would review the matter. (Reuters)
BHP says Chinese coal customers have made deferment requests
Mining giant BHP Group Ltd. has received deferment requests from Chinese coal customers, Chairman Ken MacKenzie said on Wednesday, after reports that China had put a freeze on accepting Australian coal amid trade tensions between the two countries. (Reuters)
China Southern Airlines sets record with $2.4 billion convertible bond
China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd. on Thursday opened subscriptions for 16 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) of its convertible bonds, the largest deal for a nonfinancial firm since Sinopec sold 23 billion yuan of the notes in early 2011. (Bloomberg)
iPhone chipmaker TSMC lifts 2020 sales outlook based on big 5G boost
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. raised its 2020 revenue forecast for a second time this year, reflecting strong demand for 5G mobile devices like Apple Inc.’s new iPhones and high-performance computing in the post-pandemic era. (Bloomberg)
Chip equipment giant ASML says some sales to China don’t require U.S. license
Semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding N.V. doesn’t require a special U.S. export license to ship its less-advanced microchip-making equipment from its Dutch headquarters to customers in China, its CEO said, even as Washington has reportedly tried to limit the company’s sales to the country.
Billionaire Rides Cooking Oil Dominance to Record Shenzhen IPO
Cooking oil producer Yihai Kerry Arawana Holdings Co. Ltd., founded by billionaire Kuok Khoon Hong, almost doubled when the stock debuted on the ChiNext board on Thursday after its IPO raised 13.9 billion yuan. Its namesake cooking oil with a Golden Dragon Fish logo has been a staple of Chinese kitchens for decades and fueled demand 3,499 times the amount of shares offered to retail investors online.
Apple’s iPhone 12 supports China’s self-made Beidou navigation system
The four 5G-enabled iPhone 12 models unveiled by Apple Inc. on Wednesday will support (link in Chinese) China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in their location function.
Meet the Cheap Chinese Electric Car Selling Twice as Fast as Tesla’s Model 3
Wuling’s boxy Mini EVs, launched by a Guangxi-based General Motors joint venture in July, sold at twice the rate of Tesla’s new Model 3 in China last month thanks to an underserved low-end market, generous state subsidies and an official road safety campaign that wiped out its biggest alternative. (Read the in-depth story here)
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** OTHER STORIES MAKING THE HEADLINES
Finance & Economy
• International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Wednesday called for increased participation in debt relief for poor countries by private creditors and China, saying this was key to its success and a potential framework for debt restructurings. (Reuters)
Business & Tech
• Taobao Taiwan stopped offering online e-commerce services on Thursday after less than a year of operations, following an August ultimatum from the local Ministry of Economic Affairs.
• Lenovo Group Ltd. reclaimed its title as the world’s undisputed PC leader in the third quarter, banking on strong demand from its rebounding home China market, combined with strong overall sales due to more people working and studying from home during the global pandemic.
• Chinese smartphone maker Oppo recently inked a deal with the EU’s largest mobile carrier to sell 5G handsets, seizing on the headwinds facing compatriot Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to pursue rapid growth in Europe.
• German luxury vehicle maker Audi AG is tapping (link in Chinese) China’s fast-growing electric vehicle market as it teamed up with a subsidiary of China FAW Group Co. Ltd. to set up a firm that will specialize in building electric vehicles.
• Chinese novel gene-editing platform EdiGene Inc. has raised 450 million yuan in its Series B round funding led by Chinese health care-focused private equity fund 3H Health, according to a company statement on October 13.
** ON THE CORONAVIRUS
• China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. may start Covid-19 vaccine trials in the Philippines before the end of the year, the chief of the Southeast Asian nation’s food and drug agency said. (Bloomberg)
• Singapore and Hong Kong will create a travel bubble that exempts people from both cities from quarantine, an agreement that will reopen links between Asia’s two premier financial hubs.
• Sui Zhenhua, party chief and director of the Qingdao Health Commission, has been suspended from duties, according to a local government statement, amid the latest Covid-19 flare-up that emerged during the recent week long national holiday in Qingdao in East China’s Shandong province.
• The Chinese mainland reported (link in Chinese) 11 new coronavirus cases for Wednesday, down from 20 a day earlier. Among them, 10 were imported and one was locally transmitted in the coastal city of Qingdao in eastern Shandong province. A cluster of infections has emerged connected to a hospital in Qingdao, and Caixin reported that link may be related to two dock workers who tested positive at the hospital.
• As of Thursday afternoon Beijing time, the number of global Covid-19 cases has passed 38.5 million, with nearly 1.1 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Read more
Caixin’s coverage of the new coronavirus
** LOOKING AHEAD
Oct. 19: Release of China’s third-quarter GDP
** AND FINALLY
The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft carrying three astronauts successfully docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday, finishing a three-hour journey.
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The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft docks with the International Space Station on Wednesday.
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Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com) and editor Yange Ge (geyang@caixin.com)

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