STOCK MARKET
Listed firms’ sales fall
Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange saw their combined sales decrease 4.07 percent last month from a year earlier on a consolidated basis, driven mainly by results in the oil and gas, optoelectronics and container shipping industries. Listed companies had a combined NT$2.497 trillion (US$78.52 billion) in revenue last month, the exchange said in a statement yesterday. Among them, 362 businesses, including those in the steel, automotive and semiconductor industries, saw their combined revenue rise annually, while 468 firms reported declining sales, the exchange said. The aggregate sales of the 830 companies listed on the bourse totaled NT$22.72 trillion in the first 10 months of the year, down NT$374.8 billion, or 1.62 percent, from the same period last year, the exchange said. During the 10-month period, 379 companies reported that revenue increased from a year earlier, while 451 firms saw sales decline, it added.
MACHINERY
Minister touts ‘smart’ segment
Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) on Thursday gave an optimistic outlook for the nation’s “smart” machinery industry, saying that Taiwanese manufacturers would not be affected significantly by a possible rise in protectionism in the US when US president-elect Donald Trump takes office. Lee made the remark at a news conference ahead of the APEC ministers’ forum in Lima on Thursday and Friday next week. He said that several Taiwanese companies have successfully tapped into the US aviation supply chain, with demand for high-end precision equipment there likely to remain robust. Lee is to co-head the Taiwanese delegation to the annual APEC meeting with National Development Council Minister Chen Tain-jy (陳添枝).
HONG KONG
Growth slows in Q3
Economic growth slowed in the third quarter from the second as weak exports, sluggish retail sales and declining tourist arrivals took their toll on the territory. The economy grew a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent in the third quarter, compared with a downwardly revised 1.5 percent in the June quarter. The economy expanded 1.9 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, compared with 1.7 percent in the previous quarter. The government kept its full-year estimate for this year in the middle of its previous forecast range of between 1 and 2 percent. The government expects growth to remain on a modest track in the near term, due to a number of concerns, including the likely trend of increasing interest rates in the US and elevated geopolitical risks elsewhere.
ELECTRONICS
Acer monitor wins award
Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said that its Predator Z301CT gaming computer monitor has won a “Best of Innovation” award in the computer peripherals category at the CES 2017 Innovation Awards in Las Vegas. In addition, Acer’s Swift 7 notebook computer and its Spin 7 convertible notebook have been selected as CES 2017 Innovation Honorees in the computer hardware and components category. The CES Innovation Awards, sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association, has rewarded achievements in consumer electronics in 28 categories since 1976. The jury is comprised of independent industrial designers, engineers and reporters.
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