Reserves up on currency gains
The nation’s foreign-exchange reserves totaled US$393.33 billion last month, up US$4.15 billion from the previous month, because of gains on the euro and other major reserve currencies, as well as returns on reserves management strategy, the central bank said in a statement yesterday.
The euro and other major currencies continued to appreciate against the US dollar — the base currency — last month, making foreign-exchange reserves denominated in those currencies worth more, the central bank said.
The market value of securities and deposits held by foreign portfolio investors as at the end of last month was US$201.2 billion, equivalent to 51 percent of the nation’s foreign-exchange reserves, the bank said.
Taiwan remained the world’s fourth-largest holder of foreign-exchange reserves, behind China, Japan and Russia.
Chinese bond rules relaxed
The Financial Supervisory Commission said it would further relax investment restrictions and allow local banks to buy government and corporate bonds in China.
Commission official Chiu Shu-chen (邱淑貞) said late on Thursday that the move would help improve local banks’ earnings. He said some Chinese bonds have an interest rate of about 3 percent. Taiwanese bond interest rates hover just below 2 percent.
Under the Economic Co--operation Framework Agreement (ECFA), several local banks have set up subsidiaries in China, but they are barred from engaging in yuan-denominated deals in their first two years of operation.
However, officials said their overseas branches that are not regulated by China would soon be able to buy Chinese bonds.
Yang Ming eyes bigger vessels
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), the nation’s No. 2 -container shipper, said on Thursday it plans to submit a proposal to the company’s board next week to order five ships capable of carrying up to 16,000 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers.
Yang Ming chairman Frank Lu (盧峰海) said on the sidelines of a legislative session that if his proposal is passed, the firm would get vessels twice the capacity of its current 8,000-TEU vessels. He said the world’s biggest container vessel is 18,000-TEU and building larger vessels is a trend among shippers.
Yang Ming has ordered 12,000-TEU vessels from Taiwan-based China Shipbuilding Corp (CSBC, 台灣國際造船) and it is scheduled to receive the ships next year.
Meanwhile, Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the nation’s largest and the world’s fourth-largest shipper, owns 7,000-TEU vessels and it has commissioned CSBC to build it 8,000-TEU vessels, which are scheduled to be delivered in 2013.
Concept ‘green’ cars unveiled
Feng Chia University in Taichung on Thursday unveiled the first hydrogen fuel station in the nation that supplies biologically produced hydrogen.
Two mini hydrogen concept cars were also introduced at the launch ceremony and there was a demonstration of how to change the biohydrogen batteries in the vehicles. The technology was developed in a joint collaboration between the university, the National Science Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Energy which began in 1998.
Researchers succeeded in using microbiological technology to produce hydrogen fuel from agricultural waste. The cars, each fueled by six containers of hydrogen, produce no air pollutants, only water, the university’s vice president, Lee Bing-jean (李秉乾), said.
The concept cars will be test driven by students for a year, with the evaluations and results recorded for future hydrogen energy research, the university said.
Staff writer, with agencies
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is