TAXATION
National revenue declines
The nation’s tax revenue last month decreased NT$36.6 billion (US$1.178 billion), or 13 percent, to NT$243.9 billion from the same period last year, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The ministry attributed the decline mainly to a NT$32.4 billion decrease in business income tax revenue, although revenue from tobacco and alcohol taxes gained NT$2.2 billion and health and welfare taxes increased NT$1.6 billion year-on-year. Aggregate tax revenue in the first nine months of the year increased NT$74.7 billion, or 4.2 percent, to NT$1.858 trillion from the same period last year. The nine-month figure was 3.6 percent higher than its target, the ministry said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
King Yuan obtains loan
King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子), a provider of testing for integrated circuits, yesterday said it had obtained NT$14.2 billion in a syndicated loan from 17 local lenders led by Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行). The company plans to use the funds to improve its working capital and repay long-term debts, it said in a statement. The company posted a 10 percent quarterly increase in revenue for last quarter totaling NT$5.52 billion, an all-time high. It said it benefited from increased demand for chips used in smartphones, cars and Internet-of-Things applications.
CHIPMAKERS
Macronix settles lawsuits
Memorychip maker Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) yesterday said it has settled patent infringement lawsuits with Toshiba Corp in the US after the Japanese chipmaker agreed to pay US$40 million. It was the second victory for the Hsinchu-based company after Toshiba last week agreed to pay US$40 billion to settle a series of patent infringement suits in Taiwan and Japan. In March, Marconix filed complaints with the US International Trade Commission and a district court in California, accusing Toshiba of illegally using its patents. The commission on Tuesday ruled that Toshiba had infringed patents owned by Macronix, the company said.
ELECTRICITY
Taipower approves bonds
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said its board had approved a proposal to raise NT$13.8 billion through the issuance of corporate bonds to fund green energy and power generation projects. The bonds, which include NT$2.9 billion in “green” bonds with a maturity of five years, are to be issued and traded from the middle of next month, Taipower said in a statement. The state-run utility issued NT$8.3 billion of the bonds in December last year, followed by another NT$2.4 billion issuance in April.
FINANCING
Hotai Finance to debut
Hotai Finance Corp (和潤), which provides car loan and insurance services, is expected to begin trading its shares on the Emerging Stock Board — a preparatory board for the nation’s two main bourses — on Monday at NT$53 per share. Hotai Finance is a joint venture between Hotai Motor Co (和泰) and Toyota Financial Services, which have stakes of 65.77 and 33.27 percent respectively. The amount of auto financing and installment loans for production equipment reached NT$60.7 billion in the first eight months of the year, up 17 percent from the same period last year, Hotai Finance told an investors’ conference yesterday. The amount was NT$81.2 billion for all of last year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”