BANKING
Yuan deposits surge
The central bank said yesterday that 214.52 billion yuan (US$35.38 billion) had been deposited in the nation as of the end of last month, marking the highest level of yuan deposits in history. The deposits were up from 182.6 billion yuan recorded at the end of last year, central bank data showed. Local banks began their yuan business on Feb. 6 last year. At the end of last month, the outstanding balance of deposits totaled 165.82 billion yuan in the 66 domestic banking units, up from 138.22 billion yuan recorded the previous month, while those in the 57 offshore banking units totaled 48.7 billion yuan, up from 44.38 billion posted a month earlier, according to data provided by the central bank.
MANUFACTURING
Factory openings up: MOEA
The government recorded 5,181 factory registrations last year, an increase of 19.7 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday. Among them, 3,454 were officially approved, representing an annual decrease of 3.9 percent, while 1,727 factory operators obtained temporary licenses, up by 735 over the previous year, the ministry said. During the same period, 3,356 factories — an increase of 34 percent from 2012 — closed, leaving the net increase in the number of factories at 1,825, the ministry said. Changhua County recorded the highest net increase of factories, 564, followed by Greater Taichung, with a net increase of 455, it said.
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