PHARMACEUTICALS
Lotus, Fuji push agreements
Lotus Pharmaceutical Co (美時化學製藥) and Fuji Pharma Co yesterday announced the execution of capital and business collaboration agreements. Under the terms of the cash-natural capital collaboration, Fuji acquired a 2 percent stake in Lotus for about US$20 million, while Lotus acquired a 3.9 percent stake in Fuji for an equal sum. The transaction is designed to bolster the two firms commercial platform in Japan and other key Asian pharmaceutical markets, explore cross-selling opportunities, achieve manufacturing synergies and jointly invest in the development of specialty products for the region.
TECHNOLOGY
HTC using Nvidia tech
Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) on Tuesday said it has teamed up with US graphics chip designer Nvidia Corp for its latest virtual-reality (VR) headset. HTC announced at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California, that its new Vive Pro Eye model, which was introduced in January, but has not hit stores yet, uses Nvidia’s variable rate shading (VRS) technology to cater to professional VR users. VRS increases rendering performance and quality by applying varying amounts of processing power to different areas of the image. The Vive Pro Eye is equipped with eye-tracking hardware, HTC said. Last year, HTC posted a net profit of NT$12 billion (US$389.2 million), or NT$14.72 per share, compared with a net loss of NT$16.91 billion, or a loss of NT$20.58 per share, in 2017.
ENERGY
Fuhai project approved
Taiwan Generations Corp (永傳能源) yesterday received approval from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for the second phase development of its Fuhai offshore wind project off the coast of Changhua County. The project, which had been rejected twice by the EPA, was approved after the company made changes to its plans to minimize the impact on the environment and the flight path of migratory birds. The company would also move its construction schedule from November to March next year, to October to April next year, and promised that its marine engineering crew would not spend more than 20 days at sea consecutively during construction. The turbines would also be relocated to more than 5km from neighboring offshore wind projects to avoid interference, the company said.
E-COMMERCE
PChome offers low fees
E-commerce operator PChomestore Inc (商店街) has teamed up with Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店) to offer shipping subsidies to boost sales. Until the end of this month, PChomestore customers could enjoy delivery fees as low as NT$45 on orders of more than NT$299 when they choose to pick up their orders at a FamilyMart store. The discounted delivery rates are eligible for all purchases meeting the minimum amount. Parent company PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) last year reported a net loss of NT$1.77 billion, or a loss of NT$8.49 per share.
TECHNOLOGY
Hon Hai chair vows to sue
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) yesterday took to social media and vowed to sue a TV station and its producers after a guest in a political talk show hinted at his ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Gou denied claims that he had been “instructed” by Beijing to cooperate with Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and invest in the city.
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