Chunghwa share sale called off
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday called off an offer of 180 million shares in Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to local investors, the ministry said. Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Chang Chia-chu (張家祝) said the proposed sale was cancelled because the ministry is still mulling ways to sell the state-controlled company's stock to as many buyers as possible. Chang didn't give a new timeframe for the sale. The ministry has hired Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) to manage the auction, which had been scheduled for yesterday and today. If the ministry completed the share sale smoothly, the move would help lower the government's stake in Chunghwa Telecom from 65.98 percent to 63.11 percent.
Consumer group urges action
Travel services and government agencies should play more responsible roles in handling the dysentery outbreak among tourists returning from Bali, the Consumers' Foundation (消基會) said in a statement yesterday. Travel agencies should immediately cancel their scheduled trips to Bali or replace Bali with safer destinations, the foundation said, citing Article 7 of Consumer Protection Law (消保法). The foundation said that if it is true Indonesia's tourism bureau described the illness as enterogastritis contraction, instead of dysentery, then the consumers and travel agencies should boycott Indonesia until the government makes improvement. It said the Tourism Bureau and Ministry of Foreign Affairs should provide people with complete information about the outbreak of dysentery.
Chinatrust to take charge
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) plans to take a one-time charge of NT$10 billion (US$293 million), prompting it to cut its full-year profit forecast, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday without saying where it got the information. The paper didn't say what the charge would be for. Chinatrust agreed to buy rival Grand Commercial Bank (萬通銀行) in July.
Hon Hai gets Wal-Mart order
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) won its first order from Wal-Mart Stores to supply about 300,000 portable DVD players to the US retailer for the Christmas season, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday. Hon Hai, which may increase shipments to as many as 400,000 DVD players a month, aims to sell to Wal-Mart more products such as flat-panel televisions for use in automobiles, the paper said. Hon Hai, which has yet to start production at its flat-panel display plant, will buy screens for the DVD players from Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the paper said. Matsushita buys e-books
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co will buy electronic books from First International Computer Inc (大眾電腦), a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday. The Japanese electronics company, which plans to increase purchasing from Taiwan of flat-panel televisions and telephones that can send and receive voice communications on the Internet, will send an executive to Taipei next week to complete procurement plans, the paper said.
NT dollar dips on speculation
The New Taiwan dollar slid on speculation the central bank will sell the currency to try to thwart a 1.4 percent gain this year that may erode profits for exporters. The currency fell 0.2 percent to close at NT$34.18 against its US counterpart, its weakest close since Aug. 28. Turnover was US$664 million.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is