TRANSPORTATION
Uber fined NT$135m
The National Taxation Bureau of Taipei has ordered Uber to pay NT$135 million (US$4.24 million) in back taxes and fines. The US-based online transportation network company has to pay NT$54 million in back taxes and a fine amounting to 150 percent of those taxes, or more than NT$81 million, bureau head Ho Jui-fang (何瑞芳) said yesterday. The government has said Uber is operating in violation of the nation’s laws and imposed several fines on the company, but Uber ignored appeals by authorities and continued to operate. Uber’s defiance has triggered major protests by taxi drivers, who have accused Uber drivers of not paying taxes on the income they earn, unlike licensed taxi drivers. However, earlier this week, Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) announced that the government would not draft special legislation that would allow the company to legally provide taxi services. The ministry said it also plans to send a request to Apple Inc and Google to remove Uber from their app stores in Taiwan.
ENERGY
Dong opens Taiwan office
Dong Energy, a Danish offshore wind power developer, yesterday opened an office in Taiwan. Asia general manager Matthias Bausenwein told a news conference that the firm believes in Taiwan’s ambition to develop “renewable” energy and the market potential of offshore wind power in Asia. Bausenwein said the company plans to build four wind farms in Taiwan and expects them to become operational between 2021 and 2024, with a minimum combined power generation capacity of 2 gigawatts. Bausenwein said the firm will sign a letter of intent with the Industrial Technology Research Institute to undertake joint wind power research and development. The government is considering the possibility of forming a joint venture with the firm to tap into the Asia-Pacific market, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) told the news conference.
ENERGY
CPC to use solar panels
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said it plans to install rooftop solar panels at 100 of its gas stations across the nation next year in an effort to increase the share of power generated by alternative energy sources. The panels are expected to generate 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, CPC vice president Chang Ray-chung (張瑞宗) told a news conference. Chang said CPC has also completed the switch from mercury lamps to LED lamps at 612 gas stations and 12 oil depots, which is estimated to save 1.18 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
PANELMAKERS
AUO opens new plant
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, yesterday announced it has launched its first sixth-generation low-temperature polysilicon factory in Kunchan, China. The factory cost NT$50 billion, the company said. The plant will produce high-resolution LCD panels for high-end smartphones and notebook computers, AUO said in a statement. The factory will also produce in-cell touch panels used in smartphones. The plant has an initial monthly capacity of 25,000 of glass substrates, the company said. AUO chairman Paul Peng (彭双浪) said the factory will improve services for the firm’s Chinese customers.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts