TAIEX down on profit-taking
The TAIEX opened higher yesterday, surging past the 9,000 mark, before profit-taking sent it lower to close down 0.58 percent, dealers said.
The index fell 51.96 points to 8,892.88, after moving between 8,888.21 and 9,026.18, on turnover of NT$112.85 billion (US$3.92 billion).
China tightens mineral exports
China said yesterday it would expand export quotas for rare earths to include iron alloys containing the elements, further tightening shipments of the minerals used in a variety of high-tech industries.
Starting today, iron alloys containing more than 10 percent of rare earths by weight will fall under the export quota system, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
The ministry said the move would “more effectively protect the exhaustible materials and the environment.”
China has previously imposed export quotas for pure rare earths only — 17 elements critical to manufacturing everything from iPods to low-emission cars, wind turbines and missiles.
Green Tech board OKs loan
Green Energy Technology Inc’s (綠能科技) board approved plans for a five-year syndicated loan of no more than US$84 million to fund equipment for ingot and wafer production, the Taipei-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Co (台北富邦銀行), First Commercial Bank Co (第一銀行), Mega International Commercial Bank Co (兆豐銀行) and Far Eastern International Bank (遠東銀行) are among arrangers of the loan, which is currently expected to be US$70 million, the company said.
Lightweight car body planned
China Steel Corp (中鋼) and its partners in World Auto Steel, a global steel group, have come up with a plan to develop an environmentally friendly lightweight car body for electric car production, the nation’s largest steelmaker said yesterday.
China Steel said the “Future Steel Vehicle” plan is aimed at developing a car body structure that would weigh 35 percent less than cars on average and cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 70 percent.
The company said the plan, three years in the making, will reduce the thickness of steel plates used in the car body, but reinforce the strength of the steel by meeting a broad list of global crash and durability requirements.
Standard Chartered sells bonds
Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) Ltd (渣打銀行) said yesterday it raised NT$19.35 billion via a bond sale to meet its medium-term capital needs.
The bank said in a statement it sold nine tranches of senior unsecured bonds, with maturities of between two and seven years. The bonds carry coupon rates of between 1.03 percent and 1.6 percent, it said.
Fitch Ratings assigned a “AAA(twn)” national long-term rating to Standard Chartered’s bond issue, with a “stable” outlook.
The bank had 87 branches and a market share of 2.3 percent in deposits at the end of last year, Fitch said.
UMC sells Chipbond shares
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC,聯電) sold 5.7 million shares of Chipbond Technology Corp (頎邦科技) at an average of NT$52.78 per share, for a total of NT$302.6 million, the Hsinchu-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday.
NT dollar retreats
The New Taiwan dollar slid NT$0.002 against the US dollar to close at NT$28.852 on turnover of US$824 million yesterday.
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