08/04/2026

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | APR 8, 2026

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Asian airlines cut schedules, add fuel amid supply pinch

SpaceX lays out IPO details, eyes

early June roadshow NEW YORK: SpaceX outlined details of its highly anticipated IPO at a meeting with its team of bankers Monday night, telling them it plans to earmark a large portion of shares for retail investors and will host 1,500 of them at an event in June following the IPO roadshow launch, according to two people familiar with the matter. “Retail is going to be a critical part of this and a bigger part than any IPO in history,“ chief financial officer Bret Johnsen said during the virtual meeting, the two people said, asking not to be identified because the discussion was private. Johnsen said the large retail component is by design as “those are folks that have been incredibly supportive of us and of Elon (Musk) for a long time, and we want to make sure that we recognise that.” Reuters reported last month that SpaceX is rewriting the IPO playbook with a large retail portion in the offering. The meeting brought together the full syndicate for the first time as part of the process for what is expected to be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) ever as the rocket maker seeks to raise US$75 billion (RM302 billion), valuing SpaceX at as much as US$1.75 trillion, Reuters has previously reported. The Elon Musk-led company plans to launch its roadshow the week of June 8, when executives and bankers will pitch the IPO to investors, the people said. About 125 financial analysts from the 21 banks on the deal are scheduled to meet with the company the day before, they added. On June 11, SpaceX plans to host 1,500 retail investors at what the people described as a major investor event. In addition to the US, everyday retail investors in the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan and Korea would have the opportunity to participate in the offering, the people added. One of SpaceX’s lead underwriters told the group of 21 investment banks the retail demand and allocation will be something they’ve “never seen before,“ the two people said. The structure of the deal and precise amount of the retail allocation are expected to be finalised closer to the IPO launch, they said.

HONG KONG: Airlines across Asia are cutting flights, carrying extra fuel from home airports and adding refuelling stops as the Middle East conflict squeezes jet fuel supply in some countries, adding to pressure on an industry already hit by a sharp jump in fuel costs. European carriers are bracing for similar disruption after Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz cut off nearly 21% of global seaborne jet fuel supply, according to Kpler. Previous oil shocks mainly drove up prices, but this one is also constraining physical supply, forcing governments, airlines and airports to consider rationing. “In my conversation with airlines, they are very concerned about what the future looks like, because we do not know when the war will end and we don’t know when the supply chain, the feedstock, will come from the Gulf area,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics. Asia, Europe and Africa are most exposed, analysts say, because the US has ample domestic supplies. Within Asia, the pain has so far been sharpest in lower-income, import-dependent markets such as Vietnam, Myanmar and Pakistan after China and Thailand halted jet fuel exports and South Korea capped them at last year’s levels. Budget airline AirAsia X is now loading extra fuel in Malaysia before flying to Vietnamese airports, CEO Bo Lingam told reporters on Monday. “Not to say that they are not giving us fuel, but they limit the amount of fuel,” he said of Vietnam. Past temporary jet fuel shortages at airports due to shipment disruptions or contamination have usually led to rationing rather than complete outages. o Flight reductions, tankering and refuelling stops emerge as carriers respond to squeeze

AirAsia adjusts operations as fuel constraints reshape flight planning across the region. – PEXELS PIX

leads to the tankering. This could be proactive as some countries fear they could run out.” A more than doubling of jet fuel prices since the start of the Iran war has pushed some airlines to cut capacity, while others have hiked fares and imposed fuel surcharges. In one of the starkest examples, Batik Air Malaysia has slashed domestic capacity by 36%, with CEO Chandran Rama Muthy describing the cuts as a necessary and proactive response to a “crisis-mode” environment. “If we were to continue operating without making adjustments, it could further expose the company to operational and financial risk,” he said. Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Qatar Airways have been operating well below normal capacity due to the conflict, while other global airlines have also cut flights as fare increases needed to cover fuel costs deter price sensitive travellers. Even with flight cuts, airline demand is not falling fast enough to match the drop in jet fuel supply, analysts said. At least 400,000 barrels per day of jet fuel that normally is produced in the Asia-Pacific region via crude that transits the Strait of Hormuz have been affected since the crisis started, according to Reuters’ calculations.

solution is cutting flights, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said last week when he expressed concerns the Middle Eastern conflict may not end this month. “If there’s a risk to 10% or 20% of the fuel supply in June or July or August, then we and other airlines will have to start looking at cancelling some flights or taking some capacity out,” he told reporters. Asia, which has a thinner supply cushion than Europe and is more dependent on Hormuz flows, has been hit more quickly. Vietnam Airlines has cut 23 domestic flights per week to conserve fuel, according to the country’s aviation authority. Airlines based in Myanmar suspended domestic flights for part of March due to jet fuel shortages, its transport ministry said, and some of its carriers have also cut capacity in April, according to aviation data provider Cirium. Air India is making refuelling stops in Kolkata on its return from Yangon to Delhi due to fuel shortages at Yangon airport, according to a source familiar with the matter. In the South Pacific, Tahiti International Airport has restricted refuelling for international flights to quantities essential for flight operations due to the Middle Eastern crisis, a notice to pilots shows. In Pakistan, pilots are being advised to carry maximum fuel from abroad.

Reuters previously reported that founder Elon Musk wanted to set aside up to 30% of the company’s shares for smaller investors, compared with 5% to 10% for most companies. Samsung flags eightfold quarterly earnings jump on AI chip demand SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Airlines have typically responded by loading extra fuel at home airports, adding refuelling stops on longer routes or carrying less cargo. For a more prolonged crisis, another That practice, known as “tankering”, is costly because carrying extra fuel increases fuel burn. “Some countries are in better shape than others,” said Brendan Sobie, a Singapore-based independent aviation analyst. “Some may be limiting (fuel for) foreign airlines, which then “There is no easy way to replace the lost volumes, especially as Asian supply will start to tighten as refiners cut runs,” said Alex Yap, senior oil products analyst at Energy Aspects. Industry sources estimate flight cancellations have lowered April demand in Asia specifically by only about 50,000 to 100,000 barrels per day, suggesting deeper cuts may be needed. – Reuters

absorb elevated prices,“ said TrendForce senior vice-president Avril Wu. Spot DRAM prices refer to current market prices and trade at premiums over fixed-term contract prices. These concerns, as well as the unveiling of memory-saving technology from Google called TurboQuant last month, have contributed to a selloff in memory chip stocks, with Samsung’s shares losing 9% since the war began on Feb 28. That said, its shares are still up over 60% this year, following a 125% jump the previous year. About a year ago, Samsung CEO apologised for its disappointing earnings and share price performance, after the tech giant lagged its rivals in supplying high bandwidth memory chips critical to Nvidia’s AI chipsets. – Reuters

The company will release details of its first-quarter earnings on April 30. The rise in energy costs since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran has sparked worries that cooling demand from AI data centres and other customers as well as disruptions to the supply of key chipmaking materials could slow the growth momentum for chip makers. “There are growing concerns about a peak-out in memory price increases. It does appear that we are now past the initial upcycle phase and into a later stage,“ said Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities. He said the key issue would be how Samsung structures long-term contracts with customers to sustain its semiconductor earnings. In a sign of cooling growth, spot prices for DRAM chips eased last week, as “end-user demand struggled to

in the wider market . Rival SK Hynix’s shares finished 3.4% higher. Kim estimated Samsung’s memory chip business generated 54 trillion won in operating profit, while its logic chip divisions posted a loss of 1.6 trillion won. The world’s No. 2 maker of smartphones after Apple fared better than feared in its mobile division, posting a 4 trillion won profit, a slight decline from a year earlier. The mobile business was supported by the use of low-cost component inventories, he said, but its margins will likely come under increasing pressure in the second quarter due to rising costs of memory chips and other components and materials amid the war in the Middle East. Samsung said its revenue was expected to grow 68% to 133 trillion won in the January to March period.

The record-high results nearly triple Samsung’s previous record quarterly operating profit of 20 trillion won, reached in the fourth quarter last year. Research firm TrendForce expects contract DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip prices to increase more than 50% in the current quarter as the shortage persists. “As customers anticipated further increases, actual contract prices came in higher, leading to the beat,“ Kim Sunwoo, a senior analyst at Meritz Securities, said. The company is also gaining from a slump in the South Korean currency to a near 17-year low against the US dollar, which has boosted repatriated earnings. Samsung’s shares ended up 1.8% to 196,500 won per share yesterday morning, outperforming a 0.8% rise

yesterday projected its first-quarter earnings would exceed its entire profit for last year, beating expectations as booming demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure stretched supply and drove chip prices higher. Samsung has emerged as one of the major beneficiaries of the AI data centre boom that has constrained supply for traditional chips used in smartphones, PCs and game consoles and led to a near-doubling in chip prices in the first quarter alone. The world’s largest memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 57.2 trillion won (RM153 billion) for the January to March period, compared with an LSEG SmartEstimate of 40.6 trillion won and a more than eightfold jump from 6.69 trillion won a year earlier.