TAIEX drops 0.21 percent
The TAIEX slid yesterday, with the weighted index moving down 18.33 points, or 0.21 percent, to close at 8,636.1 points.
The market opened at 8,685.96 points and fluctuated between 8,699.63 and 8,618.85 during trading. Turnover totaled NT$108.57 billion (US$3.75 billion).
Taipei Port added to PRD line
Yangming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), one of the nation’s largest container shipping companies, said yesterday that the company will add Taipei Port as an additional stop for its Pearl River Delta service (PRD) beginning on Thursday.
The PRD line would stop at Keelung Port, Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hong Kong after the adjustment, offering more services for its clients, the company said.
Shares in the company climbed 0.95 percent to NT$21.2, according to Taiwan Stock Exchange data.
FPC plans plant maintenance
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC, 台塑石化) plans to shut its third naphtha cracker in Mailiao Township (麥寮), Yunlin County, for 40 days of maintenance starting in August.
The company has not confirmed a schedule for starting up the first naphtha cracker at the site because of outages at petrochemical plants owned by Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), which use the ethylene that Formosa produces.
Firms announce bond sales
Several listed companies announced plans yesterday to sell convertible bonds to help repay bank loans, boost working capital, fund investments and buy equipment, according to filings with the stock exchange.
Telecom equipment maker Gemtek Technology Co (正文) said it plans to sell NT$2 billion in five-year convertible bonds, while SerComm Corp (中磊電子), a computer server maker, said it plans to sell as much as NT$600 million in five-year convertible bonds.
LED lighting firm Edison Opto Corp (艾笛森光電) also said it would sell NT$1 billion of five-year convertible bonds.
Mazda issues recall in China
Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp has recalled almost 95,000 vehicles in China to fix an electrical problem that could cause windscreen wipers to stall, China’s quality watchdog said.
The recall covers 80,541 units made by its Chinese joint venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Ltd (長安福特馬自達汽車) from February 2008 to February last year, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said.
The company also recalled 14,333 Mazda 3 sedans produced between January 2008 to March 2009, the watchdog said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
China delegation visits Wintek
A flat-panel purchasing delegation from China visited Taiwan-based Wintek Corp (勝華), which supplies touch-panels to Apple Inc and Nokia Corp, on Thursday, seeking collaboration on smart TVs.
The delegation, including representatives of the Haier Group (海爾) and Hisense Group (海信集團), which are multinational consumer electronics manufacturers, is headed by Bai Weimin (白為民), deputy director of the China Video Industry Association.
The group also plans to visit other Taiwanese contract makers and component manufacturers, such as Wistron Corp (緯創) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) to expand cooperation in those fields.
NT dollar gains on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the greenback yesterday, gaining NT$0.005 to close at NT$29.000, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$919 million during the trading session, down from US$1.352 billion in the previous session.
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