MANUFACTURING
Foxconn workers riot
About 100 workers at a Foxconn Technology Group (富士康集團) plant in Chengdu, China, went on the rampage this week after a dispute in a restaurant turned violent, a Sichuan government Web site said on Thursday. Police came and detained four drunken workers overnight, it said. There were no injuries. “Foxconn is cooperating with local law enforcement authorities on their investigation into this incident,” the company said in a statement. Foxconn is Apple Inc’s main manufacturer.
ENERGY
Total has no Myanmar plans
The head of French oil giant Total yesterday said the relaxation of military rule in Myanmar could lead to new projects there, but that the company currently had no specific plans. Total’s chairman and chief executive officer Christophe de Margerie was to travel to Myanmar later yesterday from the World Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur to meet authorities and others. Total has been in Myanmar since 1992 and operates the offshore Yadana gas field that fuels power plants in Thailand.
ECONOMY
French growth rate cut
The Bank of France cut its growth estimate for France yesterday, saying the eurozone’s second-biggest economy would now likely contract by 0.1 percent in the second quarter. The central bank previously expected growth to be essentially flat in the three months from April through this month. If the figures are confirmed it would be the first quarterly contraction since France pulled out of recession in 2009. A second contraction in the third quarter would mean that France joined other EU countries like Britain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain in recession.
SOUTH KOREA
Key interest rate frozen
The central bank yesterday froze its key interest rate at 3.25 percent for a 12th straight month despite renewed worries about eurozone turmoil. Exports declined year-on-year for a third straight month last month as Europe’s debt woes and China’s slowdown took their toll. Samsung Securities economist Ryan Oh told Dow Jones Newswires he expected a 25-basis points cut in the third quarter.
GERMANY
Exports fell in April
New data show that exports from Germany dropped 1.7 percent in April compared with March — a fall that followed three consecutive months of gains. The Federal Statistical Office yesterday said the nation exported goods and services worth 87.1 billion euros (US$109.5 billion) in April. In year-on-year terms, that was a 3.4 percent rise. Imports were down 4.8 in April compared with the previous month, also ending three months of increases. Imports totaled 72.7 billion euros — a 1 percent year-on-year decrease. Germany’s trade surplus slipped to 14.4 billion euros in April from March.
INTERNET
Facebook opens App Center
Facebook on Thursday began rolling out an App Center for mini-programs that plug offerings such as Pinterest or Draw Something into the leading social network. The App Center feature opened its virtual doors in the US with 600 programs geared for Web browsers as well as those for Apple and Android smartphones or tablet computers. Facebook’s App Center will expand globally in the coming weeks as part of a strategy to connect with its more than 900 million members on mobile gadgets.
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