ELECTRONICS
Innolux retains top spot
Taiwanese flat-panel maker Innolux Corp (群創光電) retained its title as the world’s largest 4K2K ultra high definition TV panel supplier last month, Chinese-language Web site DigiTimes said on Saturday. Amid inventory adjustments by global flat screen business last month, Innolux accounted for more than 65 percent of the world’s 4K2K TV screen shipments, DigiTimes said. Since China ended its year-long subsidy program for TV purchases on May 31, TV screen makers have been adjusting inventories amid signs of cooling demand, DigiTimes added. Last month, Chinese TV brand TCL, suffered a 35 percent fall in shipments from a year earlier, while rival Skyworth’s (創惟) shipments fell 17 percent month-on-month, DigiTimes said. Buying during China’s May 1 Labor Day holiday failed to boost 4K2K TV sales significantly, prompting flat-panel makers to be more cautious about 4K2K panel shipments, DigiTimes said.
ENERGY
Gasoline prices to rise
The nation’s oil refiners yesterday announced they would raise their gasoline and diesel product prices, effective today. CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) are to increase gasoline and diesel prices by NT$0.5 per liter after global crude oil prices rose last week due to a decline in US crude inventories and expectations of increasing demand as the market enters the summer season, CPC said. It said the price hikes reflected a 2.02 percent increase in its average crude oil costs of US$104.91 per barrel last week from the previous week. Formosa said global crude oil prices also rose last week due to increased concerns about oil supply from the Middle East following Egypt’s political tensions. The company said it would match CPC’s price adjustments.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure