HOTELS
Ambassador to pay dividend
Ambassador Hotel Ltd (國賓大飯店) shareholders yesterday approved plans to distribute a NT$0.7 per share cash dividend from net income of NT$46 million (US$1.52 million) last year. The results translated into earnings per share of NT$1.16, the highest in the past five years, company data showed. The company expects conditions to be tough this year, with more peers to enter the field, as the number of inbound travelers is shrink. Ambassador Hotel has no intention of adding outlets this year, but will focus on improving its service to retain guests and attract new customers, it said.
CHIPMAKERS
Winbond sees short supply
Memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) yesterday said that short supply of NOR flash memory chips would last through the middle of next year, citing strong demand. Prices for NOR flash memorychips would also continue to climb, company chairman Arthur Chiao (焦佑鈞) told reporters. Winbond, which has a 30 percent share of the world’s NOR flash market, would benefit from the latest industrial boom, Chiao said. Shareholders yesterday approved a cash dividend of NT$0.6 per share, the first cash dividend in eight years. The company posted profit of NT$2.9 billion last year, representing earnings per share of NT$0.81.
ENERGY
Heat prompts consumption
Electricity consumption yesterday attained its second-highest level for the year as temperatures soared to nearly 36°C nationwide, despite afternoon showers, state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said. Electricity consumption peaked at 34.5 million kilowatts at 1:44pm, with the operating reserve margin falling to 4.55 percent, or 1.57 million kilowatts, Taipower said. The low reserve level triggered the sixth “orange” warning of this month. An orange warning is issued when the operating reserve margin falls below 6 percent. The highest power consumption this year was on Monday, at 34.58 million kilowatts, the company said.
TAXATION
VAT filings decline
Value added tax (VAT) refunds filed by foreign visitors to Taiwan last year fell 22 percent from a year earlier due to a drop in the number of Chinese tourists, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The ministry said that as Chinese tourists tend to buy luxury goods and souvenirs, the decline in their arrivals served as the major reason for the fall in VAT refunds. VAT refunds filed last year totaled NT$1.69 billion, marking the first decline in history, while the number of VAT refund applications fell 1.3 percent year-on-year to 1.62 million, ministry data showed. The decline came after the number of Chinese tourists fell to 3.51 million from 4.18 million in 2015.
CURRENCY
NT drops against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar dropped NT$0.051 against the US dollar yesterday to close at NT$30.227 on expectations that the US Federal Reserve would raise key interest rates at its policymaking meeting yesterday, dealers said. Further selling by foreign institutional investors on the local equity market dampened sentiment toward the NT dollar, sending the US dollar to its highest since May 10, when the US currency closed at NT$30.266, they said. It was the sixth consecutive session that the greenback has gained against the NT dollar.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure