AUTOMAKERS
Tax credits to boost sales
The government’s policy of granting tax credits for trading in used vehicles might boost the nation’s new car sales above 450,000 units next year, Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產) vice president Leman Lee (李振成) said yesterday on the sidelines of a press conference to introduce this year’s Taipei International Auto Show. The bill granting tax credits for trading in used vehicles passed on Friday last week allows car owners a NT$50,000 (US$1,515) commodity tax deduction if they purchase a new vehicle within six months of discarding their used vehicle. Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) forecast the policy would lead to replacement demand for up to 200,000 vehicles in the next three to five years.
IC TESTING
King Yuan loan approved
King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子), an integrated circuit testing service provider, yesterday said its board has approved a syndicated loan deal with a consortium of banks to repay debt and replenish its medium-term working capital. The company said in a stock exchange filing that it plans to take out a five-year NT$5 billion loan from five banks led by Land Bank of Taiwan (臺灣土地銀行).
STEELMAKERS
Yieh Phui to buy shares
Yieh Phui Enterprise Co (燁輝), the nation’s largest manufacturer of galvanized steel, yesterday said it plans to subscribe for 157 million new shares of Yieh United Steel Corp (燁聯) for NT$1.14 billion, increasing its stake in its subsidiary to 23.8 percent from 19.93 percent. Yieh Phui said in a stock exchange filing that it plans to purchase the new shares for NT$7 via a private placement in a move to help improve the finances of its loss-making subsidiary.
COMPUTERS
Asustek top for gaming
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) on Thursday said that it is now the world’s biggest vendor of gaming notebooks equipped with GTX graphics cards. The company said it is also the top notebook computer vendor in the local market, with a 54 percent share. In the first 10 months of the year, Asustek’s share of the global GTX gaming notebook market was 35 percent, which puts it at the top of the world rankings, the firm said. GTX gaming notebooks are tracked closely by market information firms, as they are favored by professional gamers.
ENERGY
GE wins Wudongde contract
General Electric Co (GE) has won a contract to supply turbines that are to account for half the generation capacity of the 10.2-gigawatt Wudongde hydropower plant being built by China Three Gorges Corp (中國長江三峽集團). The renewable unit of the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company is to provide six 850-megawatt Francis turbine-generator sets and related equipment for the 100 billion yuan (US$15.5 billion) project, a statement said.
AUTOMAKERS
Fiat Chrysler recalls SUVs
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is recalling nearly 450,000 SUVs worldwide in two separate recalls that include the Jeep Grand Cherokee. The automaker said on Thursday that about 353,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango SUVs with model years 2011 and 2012 are being recalled because wiring in the vanity mirror might overheat and create a fire hazard. No injuries or accidents have been reported. The second recall is for more than 93,000 Jeep Compass and Patriot SUVs made this year. The company said it would inspect and fix a clamp that could be out of position.
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by