■ AUO manufacturing backlights
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world's third-largest liquid-crystal display maker, said it had started making backlights for its own television panels to cut costs.
"We formed a subsidiary in the second half of last year to expand into backlight manufacturing, and production has commenced," Hsiao Ya-wen (蕭雅文), a spokeswoman for the Hsinchu-based company, said by telephone yesterday. She declined to state the proportion of backlights the company would make for its own use, or say how much it would save.
AU Optronics aims to reduce spending and costs to bolster earnings, after its second-quarter profit plunged amid an industry glut. The company plans to make about 50 percent of the backlights used in its TV displays, compared with 100 percent sourced from local suppliers currently, the Commercial Times reported yesterday.
AU Optronics on July 25 reported second-quarter profit dropped 61 percent to NT$182 million (US$5.6 million) after panel prices fell and sales during soccer's World Cup failed to meet expectations.
■ Hon Hai invests in Shanxi
Taiwan's Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) said yesterday it plans to join forces with China's Shanxi Lanhua Group (山西蘭花集團) and Indonesia's Sinar Mas to set up a US$1.8 billion petrochemical venture in Shanxi Province.
A Hon Hai official said the joint venture is expected to produce methanol and related petrochemical products.
The three parties have signed a preliminary agreement for the joint venture but details for the investment time-frame need to be hammered out.
"As an electronics maker, Hon Hai eyes the joint venture's products, in particular polyacetal, which is necessary for high tech product manufacturing," the official said.
"The joint venture is expected to take advantage of Shanxi's abundant natural resources, including coal and natural gas," he added.
■ Sellers plan Yahoo-Kimo protest
An association composed of vendors who use the Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩) auction site are planning to launch a protest against the nation's largest online auctioneer, after Yahoo-Kimo announced last week it would begin charging sellers a transaction handling fee starting on Aug. 10.
As Yahoo-Kimo canceled the accounts of some users in southern Taiwan, presumably because of comments they made about the new charging system, the association may also protest to the American Institute in Taiwan over violations of freedom of speech, one member said.
The association claimed the new charge was unreasonable, because of Yahoo-Kimo's poor customer service. Yahoo-Kimo currently charges sellers a listing fee of NT$3 per item.
■ Sogo reopens after fire
After closing its doors for four days after a fire broke out, Pacific Sogo Department Store's (太平洋崇光百貨) flagship store on Zhongxiao East Road resumed operations yesterday. Revenue losses were estimated to be in the region of NT$200 million and the company is still negotiating with insurance firms over compensation, said spokesman James Wang Kuo (汪郭鼎松).
He made the remarks during a press conference after the company passed a safety check.
The branch will not have storewide sales due to the fire although some clothing brands are offering big discounts to dispose of smoke-tainted products, he said.
■ NT gains on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar advanced against the US dollar, rising NT$0.039 to close at NT$32.756 on the Taipei foreign exchange market yesterday. Turnover was US$777 million.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li