AUTOMAKERS
New car sales rise
The nation’s new car sales rose 5.1 percent to 44,143 units last month from a month earlier on buying interest ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, according to data compiled by transportation authorities. However, sales were down 7.9 percent annually. Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) remained the top car vendor by selling 14,622 cars, up about 20 percent from a month earlier and securing a 33.12 percent market share. Last month, 20,108 imported vehicles were sold, up 2.3 percent from the previous month and also up 5.9 percent annually, the data showed.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC hit by bad material
A production problem last month caused by substandard raw materials will likely cost Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) 1 to 2 percent of its sales in the first quarter of this year, an Asian brokerage has said. The incident, which damaged more than 10,000 wafers, is also expected to affect the company’s gross margin this quarter, the brokerage said in a research note. However, TSMC would report deferred sales in the second quarter, it said.
CEMENT
Asia Cement meets forecast
Asia Cement Corp’s (亞泥) revenue of NT$23 billion (US$748 million) in the fourth quarter of last year met analysts’ estimates on the back of seasonal demand and higher prices, boosting last year’s revenue by 29.34 percent to a record NT$83.94 billion. SinoPac Securities Investment Service Corp (永豐投顧) has forecast that Asia Cement would post net profit of NT$3.7 billion for last quarter, with earnings per share of NT$1.1.
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
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in