ELECTRONICS
Asustek sets ‘ZenTalk’ date
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday said it is to convene its annual “ZenTalk” conference in Taipei on Aug. 26 to showcase its upcoming flagship handset, the ZenFone 4, and its augmented reality (AR) smartphone, the ZenFone AR, to consumers. It is the third consecutive year the company has hosted the conference in the city, as part of the firm’s strategy to promote its smartphones and create a closer relationship with its consumers. Asustek said a “high-ranking” executive would personally introduce the features of the new products and dine with the participants. Asustek has not yet sent out invitations to the ZenFone 4 product launch after the company reportedly postponed it from the end of this month to the middle of next month.
TECHNOLOGY
Kinsus net income plunges
Kinsus Interconnect Technology Corp (景碩科技), a silicon substrate manufacturing arm of Pegatron Corp (和碩), yesterday reported net income of NT$63.39 million (US$2.09 million) for last quarter, down from the NT$603.32 million it made in the same period last year. Earnings per share were NT$0.14, compared with last year’s NT$1.35. The result brought the company’s combined net profit for the first half to NT$199.94 million, down from NT$1.11 billion last year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company has not yet set a date for its investors’ conference, at which it plans to announce its outlook for the remainder of this year.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai in India talks
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is in talks with a major industrial group in India to introduce low-end mobile phones in the nation, according to an Indian media report. The Economic Times reported over the weekend that Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), has entered into negotiations with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to make low-priced mobile phones under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” initiative. The report said that Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary of RIL, is planning to launch dual SIM mobile phones costing between US$23 and US$25. The report said that the mobile phones would be equipped with 2G and 4G SIM card slots and are expected to use chips designed by China’s Spreadtrum Communications Inc (展訊).
SHIPBUILDERS
CSBC Corp delivers vessel
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) yesterday said that TS Lines Co (德翔海運) has taken delivery of a 1,800 twenty-foot equivalent unit Bangkok-max vessel that it was commissioned to design and build. Despite a downturn in the global cargo shipping sector, TS Lines is committed to updating its fleet and the company has three more of the vessels on order, CSBC Corp said. The new vessel is 25 percent more fuel efficient than vessels built 10 years ago, the shipbuilder said.
ECONOMY
M1B grows 4.43 percent
M1B money supply, which refers to cash and cash equivalents, grew 4.43 percent year-on-year last month, faster than the broader gauge M2 — M1B, savings deposits, time savings deposits and foreign currency deposits — which grew 3.71 percent, the central bank said yesterday. As M1B is often linked to liquidity available for stock investments, the trend might reflect an upturn in investor confidence, as the two measures displayed a so-called “golden cross,” the bank said.
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
France cannot afford to ignore the third credit-rating reduction in less than a year, French Minister of Finance Roland Lescure said. “Three agencies have downgraded us and we can’t ignore this cloud,” he told Franceinfo on Saturday, speaking just hours after S&P lowered his country’s credit rating to “A+” from “AA-” in an unscheduled move. “Fundamentally, it’s an additional cloud to a weather forecast that was already pretty gray. It’s a call for lucidity and responsibility,” he said, adding that this is “a call to be serious.” The credit assessor’s move means France has lost its double-A rating at two of the
AI BOOST: Although Taiwan’s reliance on Chinese rare earth elements is limited, it could face indirect impacts from supply issues and price volatility, an economist said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) has sharply raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, citing stronger-than-expected exports and investment linked to artificial intelligence (AI), as it said that the current momentum could peak soon. The acceleration of the global AI race has fueled a surge in Taiwan’s AI-related capital spending and exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products, which have been key drivers of growth this year. “We have revised our GDP forecast for Taiwan upward to 5.6 percent from 4 percent, an upgrade that mainly reflects stronger-than-expected AI-related exports and investment in the third
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
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