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Trade Wars
China’s Trade Surplus Hits $938 Billion For Jan-Sep
China's trade surplus widened more than expected in September as exports surged, keeping the country on track to surpass last year's record surplus and likely intensifying trade tensions with major partners. Global demand for semiconductors and green-tech products has helped keep China's factories humming, easing pressure on policymakers to shore up economic growth against subdued domestic demand and investment. China's trade surplus topped $1 trillion in November last year and posted a record $1.189 trillion for the whole year.
Exports soared 36.3% from a year earlier, outstripping August's 25.0% rise and far exceeding expectations for 25.5% growth, customs data showed on Wednesday. September's growth was the fastest since February when exports expanded 39.6%. Imports also remained robust, up 31.0% compared with 28.2% growth in August and economists' forecasts of a 24.5% gain. With the global build-out of AI infrastructure showing little sign of slowing, analysts expect demand for Chinese-made technology products, including semiconductors, to remain robust.
Read more at Reuters
United Auto Workers Chief Re-Elected, Now Faces Tough Negotiations And US Probe
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain’s re-election last week was a breeze. His second term leading the 400,000-member labor group might not be as easy. Fain became a labor-movement celebrity in 2023, when he took over the UAW and won record contracts after staging multi-week strikes against General Motors, Ford Motor, and Chrysler-parent Stellantis. His next four-year term presents tough challenges. The Detroit Three will be focused on cutting costs in the next round of contract talks, labor experts said. Faced with higher costs from President Donald Trump's tariffs and elevated commodity prices, the Detroit automakers want to cut labor costs to compete with low-cost Chinese automakers grabbing market share in Europe, Latin America and other regions.
Fain also is the subject of a federal investigation centered on allegations of nepotism, and he has had an increasingly frayed relationship with the federal monitor overseeing UAW activities. Since summer, tensions have escalated between Fain and Neil Barofsky, a New York attorney the US government appointed to oversee the UAW. The Department of Justice has launched an investigation into allegations that Fain took actions to benefit his fiancée and retaliated against top union officers.
Read more a Reuters
TSMC Posts Record Profit For A Sixth Straight Quarter, Beating Estimates On AI Boom
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported a record third-quarter profit that beat estimates, powered by an unrelenting global appetite for AI chips. TSMC’s third-quarter revenue was 1.49 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($46.36 billion) vs. NT$1.47 trillion expected and net Income was NT$763.1 billion vs. NT$746.34 billion expected. The world’s largest contract chipmaker posted a record net profit for a sixth straight quarter, reporting 68.7% surge in the reported quarter from a year earlier.
TSMC forecast fourth-quarter revenue between $52.3 billion and $54.3 billion, representing a 14% sequential increase and a 58% jump from a year earlier at the midpoint of its guidance range, according to the company’s earnings call. The chipmaker expects its capital expenditure from 2026 to 2028 to be significantly higher than in the previous three years, as it continues to ramp up investments to support growing customer demand.
Read more at CNBC
Behind OpenAI’s First Chip
To satisfy its insatiable appetite for computing power, OpenAI decided to build its own hardware. Two years later, the firm announced its first semiconductor, an inference chip named Jalapeño. In June, OpenAI said it plans to start putting them into data centers by the end of the year.
In an interview with Forbes, VP of hardware Richard Ho says the move to build a chip is about “owning the full stack of that infrastructure”—even if that puts them in friendly competition with semiconductor giant Nvidia.
Read more at Forbes
Honda Plans 15 Next-Generation Hybrids By 2030
Honda will differentiate its next-generation hybrid system, which is set to be introduced globally in 2027, with the Honda Hybrid name, the automaker revealed in an Oct. 9 press release. In support of its new product roadmap favoring hybrids over EVs, Honda is planning to launch 15 next-generation Honda Hybrid models globally through March 2030, primarily in North America. Honda Hybrid will offer “a newly-developed electric all-wheel-drive system,” according to the automaker, and will be built on a new platform offering reduced weight and better roadholding.
Honda Hybrid is “based on the technologies amassed through the development of e:HEV, the original Honda two-motor hybrid system,” according to Honda, but it adds “a newly-developed electric all-wheel-drive system.” Honda’s current two-motor hybrid system operates as a series hybrid most of the time, using the gas engine primarily as a generator, although the engine is coupled to the drive wheels during light highway cruising to improve fuel economy. Based on technology Honda has already previewed, it’s likely that Honda Hybrid will add a third motor at the rear wheels for AWD models.
Read more at Ward’s Auto
GSK to Invest $800M In Pennsylvania Expansion
Biopharmaceutical manufacturer GSK will invest more than $800 million to expand its operations in Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro and the state’s economic development agency announced last week. London-based GSK plans to establish a biopharmaceutical and manufacturing hub with its latest investment, housing production, research and development and advanced digital capabilities at a single site. The expansion is expected to create more than 300 jobs over the next five years.
As part of the project, GSK said it will demolish existing buildings to make way for “new and enhanced facilities,” including a quality control lab and pilot plant for technology and process development. Construction is scheduled to begin next year. This is GSK’s second Pennsylvania investment in the past two years. The company pledged $800 million to increase its manufacturing and R&D footprint in Lancaster County in October 2024. That investment created 200 jobs and was considered to be the company’s largest U.S. manufacturing investment at the time.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
ASML Warns AI-Driven Demand Could Outstrip Production Capacity Into 2028
ASML has warned that demand for its semiconductor manufacturing equipment is exceeding its planned production capacity, with customers already seeking machine deliveries well into the next decade as the artificial intelligence boom continues to drive investment across the chip industry. ASML supplies the advanced lithography systems used to manufacture leading-edge semiconductors and counts companies such as TSMC, Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix and Micron among its customers. The company is also evaluating the potential demand from Elon Musk's TeraFab project. Chief financial officer Roger Dassen said ASML was still assessing the scale of that opportunity.
The Dutch lithography specialist said orders are now stretching beyond 2027, with some customers expressing interest in securing capacity for 2029 and even 2030. The surge in demand is being fuelled by rapid growth in AI infrastructure and data centre construction, prompting major semiconductor manufacturers to expand production plans.
Read more at New Electronics
US Panel Approves PJM's Registry Of Data Centers, Rejects Plan To Curtail Power To Them
US energy regulators said the country's biggest power grid -- PJM Interconnection -- can begin developing a database on Monday to track data centers, whose rapid expansion has driven up prices and threatened the reliability of the grid covering 67 million people, according to a regulatory filing. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in an order filed on Friday, rejected other central parts of a plan by PJM to manage data centers by temporarily shutting off grid power to the server warehouses to avoid blackouts in times of high energy demand.
The database approved by FERC could help the grid plan for the growth of data centers by revealing details about facilities like energy providers, in-service dates and power ramping-up schedules, as well as backup generation, fuel sources and location. FERC said that PJM could submit a revised curtailment plan but would need to address various issues, including why data centers would be temporarily shut off from the grid before other large energy users.
Read more at Reuters
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