SUGAR
Taisugar reappoints Chen
Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) yesterday appointed former chairman Chen Chao-yih (陳昭義) to the position after Charles Huang (黃育徵) resigned last week. Chen helped bring the company out of the red during his nearly four years at the helm from 2013 to 2016, Taisugar said in a statement. At a handover ceremony, Chen said that he would work to utilize the company’s idle land in Taiwan, as the asset is in high demand due to a growing number of Taiwanese companies returning from China and the development of solar energy accelerates. The company would make an effort to recruit and cultivate talent in the future, he said.
E-COMMERCE
PChome, HTNS sign MOU
PChome Online Inc (網路家庭), the nation’s largest e-commerce operator, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with South Korean logistics company Hanoro TNS (HTNS) to join forces to expand marketing horizons. Through the agreement, popular South Korean products would be made available on PChome’s online platform, PChome chairman Jan Hung-tze (詹宏志) said in a statement. PChome also aims to promote Taiwanese products in South Korea through HTNS, Jan said. The move came after PChome partnered with Rakuten Inc and eBay Inc earlier this year.
AVIATION
EVA sixth-best in world: poll
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) has been ranked the world’s sixth-best airline in a survey released at the Paris Air Show on Tuesday by Skytrax, the UK’s leading aviation service research agency. EVA also took home the honor of having the world’s cleanest airline and was cited for having the best economy-class catering. Qatar Airways Co QCSC returned to the top spot in the Skytrax World Airline Awards, the fifth time the Persian Gulf carrier has won the award, adding to its 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017 titles. Last year, Singapore Airlines Ltd claimed first place.
BANKING
Average lending rates rise
The nation’s five major state-run banks last month saw their average lending interest rates rise to 1.473 percent, up 0.028 percentage points from 1.445 percent a month earlier. The five lenders are Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行). The rate increase indicates increasing loan demand by firms to increase their working capital and capital expenditure, the central bank said in a statement. Excluding government loans, interest rates averaged 1.473 percent, down 0.006 percentage points from 1.5479 percent in April, the central bank said.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Yuan deposits drop 2.34%
Yuan deposits in Taiwan last month totaled 268.278 billion yuan (US$38.857 billion), a 2.34 percent decrease from April and the lowest level in more than five years, the central bank said. The decline resulted from some firms’ withdrawal of their yuan deposits to purchase yuan-denominated bonds, the bank said. There were also firms that remitted the Chinese currency to meet operational needs in China, it added. Jih Sun International Commercial Bank (日盛銀行) offers the highest interest rates of 2.3 percent for one-month yuan time deposits; 2.9 percent for three-month and six-month time deposits; and 3.1 percent for one-year time deposits, central bank data showed.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to