■ Taiwan Cement cuts costs
Taiwan Cement Corp (台泥), the nation's largest cement maker, has cut its borrowing costs by more than 60 percent by refinancing higher interest debt, said Hsiao Yin-yi (蕭英怡), the firm's chief financial officer. The company took out NT$15 billion (US$452.9 million) over five years as arranged by Citigroup Inc and TaipeiFubon Bank (台北富邦銀行). Out of the US$23 billion in syndicated loans completed this year in Taiwan, 45 percent were for refinancing. "We will save at least NT$70 million in interest every year," Hsiao said. "Banks are able to give us a favorable lending rate because we have been focusing on our core business which has strengthened our fundamentals." Hsiao said Taiwan Cement will have more funding needs in the future as it expands in China and the increase in government infrastructure spending will bring in more business. "There will be opportunities in the future for us to work with the banks that have lent to us and with other international lenders as our business grows," Hsiao said. The two arrangers have sold the financing to more than 10 lenders.
■ Chunghwa looks for Web deal
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) is in talks with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) to jointly enter the Internet-based IPTV market, the Economic Daily News reported, citing Chunghwa Telecom chairman Hochen Tan (賀陳旦). Chunghwa Telecom may commission Hon Hai to make products used in movie-on-demand services, the newspaper said. Chunghwa Telecom is the nation's largest provider of phone services. Hon Hai is the nation's largest electronics firm by sales. Chunghwa Telecom expects a net profit of NT$44 billion (US$1.33 billion) with sales of NT$187.2 billion next year, the Commercial Times reported, citing a company projection. In the first 11 months, the company's net profit was NT$46 billion, Chunghwa said in a statement on Dec. 8, without giving a year-earlier comparison. For the same period, sales rose 0.4 percent from a year earlier to NT$167.4 billion, the statement said.
■ Locals excel in design awards
Taiwanese manufacturers won 63 iF Product Design Awards in Germany, surpassing Japan and South Korea to become Asia's big winner, according to the Industrial Development Bureau. The two Asian neighbors won 45 and 43 awards respectively.
Only host Germany won more awards than Taiwan in the design world's Oscars, which drew the participation of 1,952 products from 37 countries. Taiwan's BenQ Corp (明基) snatched 13 awards, placing third after Samsung Electronics Co of South Korea and Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands in company rankings. Another shining Taiwanese company was DUCKIMAGE, a design company that won 10 awards in the Hannover, Germany, international forum. Altogether, 688 products were given the coveted iF seal of design excellence. Of these, 50 gold award or "design Oscar" winners will be announced at CeBIT this March.
■ NT dollar rises
The NT dollar strengthened on speculation that some exporters will exchange overseas profits before a month-end bookkeeping deadline. The currency's biggest decline in a week on Tuesday boosted overseas earnings for firms like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電). "Exporters are likely to buy the Taiwan dollar before the year ends," said Joseph Lee, a trader at Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行). The NT dollar closed at NT$33.107 against its US counterpart from NT$33.132 yesterday, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to