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.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure