OSAKA -- Panasonic will own more intangible assets than fixed assets for the first time by the end of this fiscal year, as it shifts its investment focus from traditional manufacturing to areas like software.

The Japanese company expects its intangible assets to swell by roughly 900 billion yen ($7.9 billion) this fiscal year from the September acquisition of U.S. software company Blue Yonder, including goodwill, bringing the total well above 1 trillion yen. It had 1.06 trillion yen in fixed

SYDNEY -- Anglo-Australian mining giants BHP Group and Rio Tinto cut iron ore production in the third quarter, hit by a worker shortage resulting from coronavirus travel restrictions.

Western Australia, home to the iron ore mines for both industry behemoths, experienced a personnel squeeze as the travel restrictions kept mining workers from entering. Many of these employees fly in to the work sites from outside the state for a period of time.

BHP's iron ore output in Australia declined 5% to 70.6 million tons for

BEIJING -- Chinese tech heavyweight Alibaba Group Holding is reportedly on the shortlist of potential white knights that would bail out embattled domestic chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup, which once stood at the forefront of China's semiconductor ambitions.

Tsinghua and its creditors have settled on restructuring proposals from seven strategic investors that have expressed interest in leading the rehabilitation, the company announced Monday.

The release did not name all the winning candidates, but Alibaba is the sole private-sector contender among the group, according to a report by Caixin. The final

NEW YORK -- Afghanistan's economic output could shrink by 30% this year as the Taliban government finds itself isolated from the global community, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday, a shock that "threatens to push millions into poverty."

"With nonhumanitarian aid halted and foreign assets largely frozen, Afghanistan's aid-dependent economy faces severe fiscal and balance-of-payments crises," the report said.

Uncertainty hangs over the a cash-based economy now controlled by the Taliban, which swept back

Frederic Neumann is co-head of Asian Economics Research at HSBC.

Containers are piling up in Asian ports. Shippers can't keep up with demand. Sneakers and semiconductors are in desperately short supply. The pandemic has provided a boon to the region's exporters, but this is about to end. Shipments will cool from their torrid pace and trade will slow over the coming year, posing headwinds to Asian growth.

Few would have predicted it. While COVID-19 decimated growth the world over, destroying lives

TOKYO -- Candidates in their 20s and 30s make up 9.4% and women less than 20% of those running in Japan's lower house election on Oct. 31, highlighting the country's continued struggles with incorporating new and more diverse viewpoints into its politics.

Of the 1,051 registered candidates who began campaigning on Tuesday, 99 are in their 20s and 30s -- falling below the 10% mark for the first time

HONG KONG -- China Evergrande has announced that it will make interest payments on domestically issued bonds, even as the property developer teeters on the brink of a dollar debt default, deepening suspicious among offshore investors that they will be last line for repayment.

Hengda, Evergrande's primary unit on the mainland, said in a statement late Friday that it will pay coupons worth 121.8 million yuan ($19 million) on its October 2025 bond, which comes due Tuesday. That contrasts

SINGAPORE -- Quarantine-free travel is slowly resuming in Asia, with Singapore and some other key destinations opening up to passengers who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Asia has lagged far behind Europe and North America in reviving cross-border travel. But as inoculation rates rise and economic pressures mount, the Philippines, Thailand and other countries are also gradually reopening their borders to visitors from selected departure points -- moves the aviation industry hopes will spread.

Starting Tuesday, Singapore is allowing vaccinated travelers from the

TOKYO -- Companies are eager to make a statement on climate change at Japan's Ceatec trade show as pressure mounts on them to take global warming seriously. With the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, coming up at the end of this month, the latest technologies are growing in appeal.

The annual tech expo officially kicked off on Tuesday. Over 300 companies are showcasing their latest products and services during the next four days. Due to COVID