■ Television
EchoStar moves into China
EchoStar Communications Corp, the second-largest US satellite-television broadcaster, and Eastern Multimedia Group, a Taiwan cable-television broadcaster, have signed a pact to provide TV programs to China, the ETTV television station said, citing Eastern Multimedia's chairman. "EchoStar will provide us four satellite channels for Chinese programs," Eastern Multimedia Chairman Gary Wang said in the report by ETTV, which belongs to Eastern Multimedia. Privately held Eastern Multimedia on June 6 said it planned to sell shares in Taiwan this year and in Hong Kong next year to fund the purchase and production of television programs and movies.
■ Electronics
Sony standardizes chips
Sony Corp, the world's second-largest consumer-electronics maker, plans to halve the time and cost of product development by using common chips and software for its audiovisual products, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without saying where it obtained the information. Sony plans to sell televisions, DVD players, camcorders, digital cameras and other audiovisual equipment that use standard chips starting later this business year that ends March 31, the report said. A new audiovisual product is now largely designed with dedicated chips, the report said, and chips and software make up more than two-thirds of the total develop-ment cost. The company reported a wider-than-expected loss of ?111.1 billion (US$940 million) for the three months ended March 31 after sales at its game business fell 25 percent and demand for stereos and televisions slumped.
■ Policy
Chen stumps for reform
President Chen Shui-bian yesterday tried to sell his administration's reform of the country's grass-roots credit cooperatives and insurance programs for farmers and fishermen in his weekly televised broadcast. The president said the reform of the current credit cooper-atives run by farmers' and fishermens' associations is aimed at strengthening the country's grass-roots credit system to prevent unnec-essary losses, which would be at the taxpayer's cost. The administration's plan to reform the insurance program for farmers and fishermen is aimed at closing the loop-holes in the current system and ensuring the govern-ment's subsidy to the program is enjoyed by real farmers and fishermen, he added. In order to get this message across, the president said, he will make a whistle-stop tour to every village and rural town around the island to explain his administration's reform.
■ Steel
Thailand dumps dumping-tax
Thai Minister of Commerce Adisai Bodharamik announced yesterday that his country will scrap the anti-dumping tax on steel from Taiwan and 13 other countries to help cut the costs for several of its industries, including the automobile, electronics and zinc coating industries. Thailand imposed anti-dumping taxes on the 14 countries a month ago, with a rate averaging 36 percent. The anti-dumping tax for steel from Taiwan is 3.45 percent, but the rate for steel from Venezuela is as high as 75 percent. In making the announcement, Adisai also said that Thai steel product manufacturers must buy their raw materials domestically in large quantities, and that the ratio should be 55 percent in the first year, 63 percent in the second year, 73 percent in the third year, 91 percent in the fourth year, and 97 percent in the fifth year.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure