TAIEX on a mild rebound
The TAIEX staged a mild technical rebound yesterday from a slump the previous day, but the gains were limited by stiff technical resistance near the 7,700 mark, dealers said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, led the tech sector’s rally on the back of futures-driven buying, they said.
The weighted index closed up 14.17 points, or 0.18 percent, at 7,683.80, after moving between 7,658.71 and 7,699.23, on turnover of NT$77.28 billion (US$2.63 billion).
LED chipmaker to cut staff
Lossmaking LED chipmaker Huga Optotech Inc (廣鎵光電) plans to cut its work force by 6.5 percent, or 52 workers, to cope with shrinking orders and falling utilization rates, the company said in a filing to the Central Science Park administration.
Huga Optotech, which has 800 workers, lost NT$844 million in the first half of this year, widening from a loss of NT$104 million a year ago.
Shareholders are expected to meet today to approve the company’s merger with local rival Epistar Corp (晶電).
Huga will become a 100 percent subsidiary of Epistar in a share swap deal worth NT$4 billion and it is to be delisted from the bourse after the deal closes today.
Vee Telecom raises NT$420m
WiMAX operator Vee Telecom Multimedia Co (威達雲端電訊) yesterday said it had raised NT$420 million by selling 20 million common shares via a private placement.
The shares were all purchased by Vee Telecom chairman Richard Lai (賴富源).
In July, Vee Telecom shareholders approved a plan to sell 80 million common shares via a private placement in three installments within a year. The company plans to use the proceeds to improve its financial status.
Vee Telecom posted a loss of NT$471 million in the first two quarters of this year.
Hon Hai needs financial head
Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, is recruiting a financial manager for a mobile phone factory that it is building in Indonesia, Hon Hai spokesman Simon Hsing (邢治平) said on Wednesday.
It is the first executive job advertised for the factory, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year and is to make products specifically for the Indonesian market, Hsing said.
The financial manager must be fluent in Indonesian, familiar with the country’s investment environment and have at least 10 years of experience in the fields of banking relations and funds procurement, he said.
FEZ plan in November
A plan to create the first free economic zone (FEZ) in the country will be submitted to the Cabinet at the end of November with the aim of attracting more local and foreign investment, Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said on Wednesday.
The first FEZ is to be built in Greater Kaohsiung, where there is already industrial and commercial development and an international harbor and airport, Yiin said at a legislative session.
The government will ease regulations on Chinese and other foreign businesses in the zone to facilitate capital flow, logistics and labor recruitment, he said.
NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar regained strength against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.077 to close at NT$29.420. However, turnover narrowed to US$560 million from US$896 million in the previous session.
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