BANKING
Home loans growth slows
Home loans totaled NT$5.96 trillion (US$179.02 billion) at the end of last month, a rise of 2.93 percent from the same period a year earlier, the slowest pace of increase in two years, according to statistics released by the central bank yesterday. Cautious sentiment on the part of home buyers accounted for the slowdown, the central bank said. However, self-occupancy upheld the housing market, as first-time buyers increased their mortgage loans by NT$3.3 billion at eight major state-run banks to NT$433.4 billion last month from July, the central bank said. Construction financing increased 4.26 percent from a year earlier to NT$1.66 trillion, the lowest annual increase in 19 months, the central bank said.
BANKING
Fitch updates its ratings
Fitch Ratings Inc has changed its ratings for several private banks in Taiwan, driven by changes in the banks’ intrinsic credit profiles, according to a statement released yesterday. The ratings agency said it upgraded EnTie Commercial Bank’s (安泰銀行) national rating from “A-”to “A,” revised the outlook of Far Eastern International Bank (遠東國際商銀) and Taichung Commercial Bank (台中商銀) from “negative” to “stable” and affirmed the ratings of Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank (上海商業儲蓄銀行), King’s Town Bank (京城銀行) and Bank of Taipei (瑞興商業銀行).
BANKING
BOT, Land Bank to cut rates
State-owned Bank of Taiwan (BOT, 臺灣銀行) yesterday announced it plans to lower its New Taiwan dollar interest rates on Tuesday next week, following in the footsteps of the central bank, which announced a cut in official interest rates on Thursday. The BOT is to cut the interest rate on various time deposits and time savings deposits by between 0.02 and 0.075 percentage points, the bank said in a statement. State-controlled Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) also announced that it would slash interest rates on various time deposits by between 0.02 and 0.08 percentage points beginning on Tuesday.
INVESTMENT
Powerchip venture approved
The Investment Commission yesterday approved Powerchip Technology Corp’s (力晶科技) application to invest US$230 million in a 12-inch wafer plant in Hefei, Anhui Province, China. The Taiwanese company plans to use the funds to work with Hefei Construction Investment and Holding Co (合肥市建設投資控股) at the factory to produce driver ICs for LCD TV panels, the commission said in a statement. Powerchip said the technologies used in the Hefei factory are to be five generations behind its newest technologies. The company also promised to invest at least NT$5 billion on research and development in Taiwan each year, the commission said.
SOLAR ENERGY
Motech, Aide Solar team up
Motech Industries Inc (茂迪), the nation’s biggest solar cell maker, yesterday said it had reached an alliance agreement with Jiangsu Aide Solar Energy Technology Co (江蘇艾德太陽能科技) in a bid to expand its presence in China. In a statement, Motech said it agreed to sell a 4.61 percent share in Motech (Suzhou) Renewable Energy Co (茂迪蘇州新能源) to Aide Solar in exchange for a number of solar cell manufacturing facilities worth 76.83 million yuan (US$12.05 million). Aide Solar, a solar cell and photovoltaic module maker, is a China-based subsidiary of Taiwanese diode maker Pan Jit International Inc (強茂).
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