PROPERTY
Office space in demand
The take-up rate of grade A office space in Taichung rose to 80 percent last year, from 68 percent in 2016, as demand increased, a survey conducted by Colliers International Taichung branch (高力國際) showed yesterday. Because the luxury housing market remains sluggish, real-estate funds have been investing in commercial property, the international property broker said. A total of 54,923 ping (181,564m2) of grade A office space is to join the market in central Taichung this year, including a new building owned by CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽), the broker said.
BIOPHARMA
ITRI, Merck to collaborate
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) yesterday said it has inked a memorandum of understanding with Merck KGaA on a collaboration program to cultivate professionals in the biopharma sector. The program, to be officially launched in May, is expected to help expand the global market share of the local biopharma industry and create new business opportunities in the precision medicine market, the ITRI said in a statement. As part of the project, Merck is to introduce manufacturing technologies for antibody-drug conjugates, helping Taiwanese companies to enter advanced international pharmaceutical markets. The global biopharma market is estimated to be worth US$278 billion by 2020, the ITRI said.
HOSPITALITY
FDC dividend proposed
Hotel and restaurant operator FDC International Hotels Corp (FDC, 雲品國際) yesterday said its board has approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.75 per share based on last year’s earnings. The hotelier posted NT$228 million (US$7.82 million) in net income for last year, or earnings per share of NT$3.48, the company said in a statement last week. The result represented a 19 percent year-on-year increase as its strategy to acquire restaurants and strengthen its service quality paid off, the statement said.
SOLAR CELLS
E-Ton to reduce capital
Solar cell maker E-Ton Solar Technology Co (益通光能) yesterday said its board has approved a plan to reduce its share capital by 59 percent to improve its financial structure. After the reduction, E-Ton would have share capital of NT$3.19 billion. The company has accumulated losses of NT$6.75 billion. E-Ton plans to allocate the NT$2.15 billion surplus to reduce its losses to NT$4.6 billion. Last year, E-Ton lost NT$2.62 billion, marking its ninth consecutive unprofitable year.
MEMORY CHIPS
Macronix touts NOR flash
Memorychip maker Macronix International Co Ltd (旺宏) yesterday said TMicroelectronics is using its NOR flash memory for the company’s new STM32L4+ microcontroller Discovery kits and evaluation boards. Macronix said its latest MX25LM 8-bit I/O Series NOR flash series meets the growing demand for “instant-on” performance and real-time system responsiveness in automotive, industrial and consumer applications. ST’s new ultra-low-power, high-performance STM32L4+ is equipped to operate as the central controller in a full range of fitness bands, “smart” watches, medical equipment, “smart” meters and industrial sensors which require sophisticated functions, instant responses and minimal downtime for battery charging, the company said.
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