Luxgen orders recall
Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車) is recalling some of its minivans and sport utility vehicles (SUV) back to the shop to replace a faulty torque converter.
The recall covers M7 Turbo minivans and U7 Turbo SUVs produced between Dec. 1 last year and March 24, Luxgen said in a post on its Web site on Saturday.
The company, a subsidiary of Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), did not reveal how many cars will be recalled, but said owners of affected vehicles will be notified by the company and will be able to have their torque converter replaced at no charge.
Luxgen said that defective oil seal parts will affect the torque converter, lead to loss of motive power and raise safety concerns.
Hua Nan heads to Fuzhou
Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) on Friday said it had gained Chinese financial authorities’ approval to open a branch in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, next month, which will provide a full range of yuan-denominated services, such as deposits, loans and remittances.
The banking unit of Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) said the Fuzhou branch is expected to begin operations on May 13.
Hua Nan Commercial already has two branches in China — in Shanghai and Shenzhen — and a sub-branch in Shenzhen’s Baoan District.
Phision sees record Q1 income
Flash memory controller maker Phision Electronics Corp (群聯) on Friday reported pre-tax income of NT$1.01 billion (US$32.5 million) for the first quarter of the year, the highest figure for the January-to-March period in the company’s history.
The figure was up 17.74 percent from a year earlier and 25 percent higher than the previous quarter, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Sales for last quarter rose 8.31 percent year-on-year to NT$8.34 billion on rising shipments, the company said.
Taiwan Star posts loss
Taiwan Star Telecom Corp (台灣之星), a telecom arm of Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團), reported NT$2.79 billion loss last year, or loss per share of NT$1.67, reflecting the negative impact from the cooking oil scandal involving its parent company last year.
Taiwan Star Telecom said in a statement on Thursday that it had 200,000 subscribers to its 4G services.
Revenue for the first quarter rose 33 percent from a year earlier to NT$2.45 billion, the company said.
MediaTek launches program
Handset chip supplier MeidaTek Inc (聯發科) on Thursday said it launched a program in collaboration with Underwriters Laboratories Inc to help power supplier makers to receive qualification for its quick charger technology, dubbed Pump Express Plus.
MediaTek said its rapid charge technology allows users to charge devices up to 75 percent of the batter capacity in just 30 minutes.
Northbrook, Illinois-based Underwriters Laboratories is an independent US safety consulting and certification company.
Chunghwa buys 4G equipment
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest telecoms operator, on Thursday said the company’s board had approved the acquisition of new broadband equipment from Nokia Solutions and Networks for NT$1.86 billion to expand its 4G network.
The company this month triggered a new round of price competition in 4G business, with a more aggresive promotional campaign, which led other telecom companies to follow suit, as it is targeting 3.2 million 4G users this year, or 40 percent of the local market.
Daiwa raises Catcher price
Daiwa Capital Markets Inc has raised its target price for Catcher Technology Co (可成) to NT$437 from NT$376, saying the firm may report NT$6.7 in earnings per share (EPS) for the January-to-March period, compared with NT$3.97 reported in the same period of last year.
The metal casing supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhone and HTC Corp’s (宏達電) One M9 smartphone is expected to release its first-quarter earnings and other financial results tomorrow.
Daiwa said in a note last week that Catcher’s first-quarter sales of NT$17.4 billion beat a market estimate of NT$15 billion, supporting its analysts’ higher EPS estimate for the company.
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