US woes weigh on shares
Taiwanese shares closed 2.74 percent lower yesterday as global financial woes deepened amid fears that more US financial institutions could go under, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 158.92 points to 5,641.95 on turnover of NT$95.12 billion (US$2.96 billion).
Decliners outnumbered gainers 1,460 to 303, with 311 stocks unchanged.
A total of 358 shares were limit-down, against 20 limit-up.
Construction slid 6.7 percent, financials dived 6.6 percent and textiles were down 5.3 percent.
CHT to launch satellite
Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT,中華電信) said yesterday it planned to launch a new satellite in the fourth quarter of 2010 via a joint venture with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel).
CHT said it had spend S$60 million (US$41.95 million) buying 38 percent share of the joint venture, Chunghwa Telecom Singapore Pte Ltd; Singtel holds 62 percent.
CHT said the ST-2 satellite would provide voice, data and video services, as well as innovative IP-based solutions such as Internet, VOIP and enterprise resource management.
The ST-1 satellite, launched in 1998, is co-owned by CHT and SingTel, and is due for replacement in 2011.
ST-2, which will be located at the same 88 degrees East longitude as ST-1, has a planned life cycle of 15 years compared with ST-1’s 12 years.
IBM lab to expand staff
International Business Machines Corp (IBM) said yesterday its systems and technology laboratory (TSTL) in Taiwan planned to beef up its research staff.
Established in 2006, the lab in Nangang (南港), which has developed more than 30 new products over the past two years, houses 250 local engineers. Jan Janick, vice president of IBM’s systems and tech group, did not give a timetable for the expansion but said that the lab expectes to boost the work force to 400.
“Our goal is to build on locals skills and strengthen innovative thinking,” said Mark Wiltse, director of IBM Greater China group System X development.
Simon Lin (林憲銘), chairman and chief executive officer of Wistron Corp (緯創), said at the same event that “TSTL has opened the door for Taiwan-based hardware manufacturers to participate in IBM’s R&D projects, while the collaboration mode was also raised from original equipment manufacturing to original design manufacturing.
Architects to share experience
The UK Sustainable Architecture Design Seminar will be held on Oct. 2 in Taipei. Organized by the British Trade & Cultural Office and the Taipei Architects Association, the seminar will focus on urban generation, water front, art and cultural development.
Six UK architects will share their experience on topics such as sustainable city planning for a sustainable future, integrated energy strategy as part of a low carbon district plan, regeneration and environment, railway as an urban generator and planning for eco-cities.
To register, contact the British office at (02) 8758-2059 or write to candy.kao@fco.gov.uk
NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar dropped to near an eight-month low as the TAIEX fell 2.74 percent, extending this week’s losses to 10.6 percent.
The NT dollar fell 0.4 percent to close at NT$32.218 against the US dollar, Taipei Forex Inc said.
“I expect further upside in the US dollar against Taiwan’s currency,” said Irene Cheung, who supports regional trading at ABN Amro Bank NV in Singapore. “The Asian stock markets continue to be vulnerable because of extreme risk aversion among investors.”
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by