ENERGY
CPC hikes LPG prices
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said it would raise prices for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) items, while keeping those for liquefied natural gas (LNG) products unchanged from last month. From today, prices for household LPG are to increase by NT$1.9 per kilogram and by NT$1.1 per liter for LPG used in cars to reflect an increase in international LPG contract prices, CPC said in a statement. The price of a 20kg household gas cylinder — often used by families, restaurants and food stands — is to increase by NT$38.
TELECOMS
Note 8 pre-orders end
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) yesterday said it has completed pre-orders for Samsung Electronics Co’s latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 8, on the first day of the campaign. The orchid gray model was the most popular among Taiwanese, making up 60 percent of pre-orders, Chunghwa said in a statement. Orchid gray is an exclusive color for the Taiwanese market. People who placed pre-orders can start receiving the device on Sept. 12 at the earliest, the company said. Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday also began taking pre-orders for the Note 8, which are to run for a week.
GOVERNMENT
MOU signed with US firm
The Ministry of Economic Affairs inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Rockwell Automation Inc in Cleveland, Ohio, to join forces in exploring “smart” machine business opportunities, the ministry said yesterday. Taiwanese firms and Rockwell are to codevelop “smart” manufacturing systems based on the MOU, the ministry said in a press statement, without naming the local companies. The collaboration is expected to increase Taiwanese machinery makers’ competitiveness in the field of “smart” machinery, given the US company’s strong capability in industrial automation technologies and its global presence, the ministry said.
GOVERNMENT
El Salvador tariffs reduced
Taiwan on Wednesday signed four resolutions with El Salvador following the second annual Taiwan-El Salvador-Honduras free trade agreement (FTA) executive committee meeting in Taipei. The Ministry of Economic Affairs on Thursday said that the two nations agreed to make annual reductions in tariffs on each other’s exports, including aloe vera juice, jello and tape from Taiwan, and dried pineapple, dried mango, dried plantain and dried banana from El Salvador. The 5 to 10 percent tariffs are to be reduced to zero in 10 years’ time, the ministry said. The FTA was signed on May 7, 2007, and went into effect in 2008.
TECHNOLOGY
Taipei to host IT congress
This year’s World Congress on Information Technology (IT) is to be held in Taipei from Sunday next week to Sept. 13, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. This year’s theme will be “Living the Digital Dream,” addressing challenges and potential opportunities faced by digital economies and “smart” cities with particular reference to high-level policies, transformation strategies, technology application and business models, the ministry said. More than 900 foreign visitors from 80 nations are expected to attend, it added. The congress was launched in 1978 by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance and has since become a premier international IT forum. Taiwan last hosted the congress in 2000.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by