■ 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.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San