BANKING
Yuan deposits decline
The nation’s yuan deposits declined last month for the fourth consecutive month, the latest central bank data showed. Deposits reached 305.851 billion yuan (US$45.77 billion) last month, a reduction of 2.485 billion yuan, or 0.81 percent from May. Yuan deposits at lenders’ domestic banking units totaled 269.617 billion yuan last month, falling by 314 million yuan from the previous month, while yuan deposits at lenders’ offshore banking units stood at 35.934 billion yuan, down 2.171 billion yuan over the same period, the central bank said in a statement. However, yuan remittances hit 148.559 billion yuan last month, an increase of 8.24 percent from the previous month, the central bank said.
PLASTICS
Formosa to buy machinery
Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠) yesterday said it plans to purchase NT$368 million (US$11.5 million) of machinery equipment from one of its subsidiaries to expand its manufacturing capacity. The nation’s largest maker of polyvinyl chloride said the equipment purchased from Formosa Heavy Industries Corp (台朔重工) would be used to expand production capacity at its plants in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) and Kaohsiung’s Renwu District (仁武). Formosa Plastics has a 32.92 percent stake in Formosa Heavy Industries.
RETAILING
7-Eleven touts vegetables
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) said it has increased orders of fresh vegetables from Formosa Environmental Technology Corp’s (台朔環保科技) organic farm, which means customers would be able to buy fresh vegetables at more than 450 of its 7-Eleven stores from next week. The vegetables were first launched in March last year and the service has been expanded from Taiwan proper to the outlying island of Matsu. The increased orders could help boost sales in the category by 60 percent year-on-year, President Chain said in a statement.
AVIATION
HNA to buy Swiss firm stake
China’s HNA Aviation Group Co (海航集團) yesterday agreed to buy a majority stake in SR Technics, a Swiss aircraft-maintenance service provider, from Mubadala Development Co for an undisclosed amount. The Abu Dhabi government-backed investment fund is to sell 80 percent of SR Technics and retain the rest in a deal subject to regulatory approvals, the Zurich, Switzerland-based company said in a statement. SR Technics has 3,300 workers and services about 1,050 aircraft, according to its Web site. HNA’s planned acquisition of SR Technics is only the latest in a string of Chinese takeovers of Swiss companies and the group is also in the process of acquiring Gategroup Holding AG, a Swiss inflight caterer.
RAILWAYS
Singapore inks metro deal
The Singaporean government yesterday said that it would buy almost S$1 billion (US$740 million) of metro train assets from SMRT Corp so that the nation’s main rail operator can focus on providing reliable and well-maintained services for commuters. Singapore’s rapidly expanding Mass Rapid Transit lines, run mainly by SMRT, have experienced a series of breakdowns which have left thousands of commuters stranded. The Land Transport Authority, the city-state’s transport regulator, is to acquire SMRT’s rail system, including its trains, with an estimated total net book value of S$991 million, the rail operator said in a separate statement.
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