PETROLEUM
CPC cuts LPG prices
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said it would cut prices for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) items this month, while keeping those for liquefied natural gas (LNG) products unchanged from last month. Effective today, prices are to drop by NT$3.9 per kilogram for household LPG and NT$2.1 per liter for LPG used in cars to reflect a fall in international LPG contract prices, CPC said in a statement. The price of a 20kg household gas cylinder would decrease by NT$78, CPC said.
STOCK MARKET
China changes IPO rules
China has dropped its requirement for initial public offering (IPO) subscriptions to be paid in advance, regulators said on Thursday, to curb stock market volatility. The change was to take effect yesterday and “manifests a market-oriented reform direction,” the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement. China’s lawmakers last week authorized the central government to make changes to the system. Authorities have pledged to reform the IPO rules, allowing companies to decide the details of the new share offers themselves instead of the regulator.
TRADE
Official reassures farmers
The government will not neglect the interests of farmers when negotiating a trade-in-goods agreement with China, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Bill Cho (卓士昭) said on Thursday. The government would only consider allowing the import of agricultural goods from China that Taiwan does not grow itself and already imports from other nations, Cho said. If allowing the imports prompts China to reduce its tariffs or open its market to more produce, it will benefit farmers, he said.
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