Platinum prices spiked this week as deadly violence costing the lives of 34 people struck a platinum mine in South Africa.
Oil prices hit three-month highs on a number of factors, including positive US economic data and growing hopes of fresh economic stimulus by global central banks.
PRECIOUS METALS: Platinum prices hit the highest level since early last month, at US$1,462.50 an ounce, owing to the violence at a platinum mine in South Africa run by London-listed miner Lonmin. The metal’s price has risen about 4 percent since Thursday.
South African police on Friday said they fired only in self-defense in a clash with striking mineworkers, in which 34 people died. The workers at the Marikana mine were on a weeklong wildcat strike demanding a tripling of their wages from the current 4,000 rand (US$486) a month.
Gold prices, meanwhile, fell after an industry body said global demand for the precious metal had fallen to its lowest level in two years on weaker buying in main markets India and China, despite rising demand from central banks.
Worldwide demand fell 7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, the World Gold Council said in a report.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold fell to US$1,614.75 an ounce from US$1,618.50 a week earlier.
Silver climbed to US$28.20 an ounce from US$27.88.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum surged to US$1,455 an ounce from US$1,399.
Palladium gained to US$592 an ounce from US$578 an ounce.
OIL: World oil prices hit three-month highs before cooling on Friday on profit-taking.
Crude futures on Thursday reached the highest levels since May on encouraging economic figures in top crude consumer the US, traders said. New York oil hit US$95.69 a barrel and Brent US$117.03. The Brent price was for its September contract which expired at the close of trading on Thursday.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in October stood at US$114 a barrel compared with US$111.84 for the September contract a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) or light sweet crude for September jumped to US$95.21 a barrel from US$92.30.
BASE METALS: Aluminum hit a near three-year low at US$1827.25 a tonne on Thursday.
By late Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months jumped to US$7,537 a tonne from US$7,440 a week earlier.
Three-month aluminum fell to US$1,857 a tonne from US$1,877. Three-month lead dropped to US$1,872 a tonne from US$1,898. Three-month tin rose to US$18,460 a tonne from US$17,785. And three-month nickel grew to US$15,467 a tonne from US$15,305.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
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