MACROECONOMICS
M1B and M2 growth slows
Last month’s M1B — a measure of the amount of money in circulation in the nation — grew 7.23 percent year-on-year, slower than the 7.65 percent annual growth in April, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. M2 — which includes M1B, time deposits, foreign currency deposits and mutual funds — also saw annual growth slow to 3.4 percent, from 3.71 percent in April, the bank said. The declines were mainly because of net foreign capital outflows and slower growth in bank loans and investments, the bank added. For the first five months of this year, the average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 were 6.85 percent and 3.25 percent respectively, the bank said.
TELECOMS
CHT to hire 1,000 workers
Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom, yesterday said that it plans to hire about 1,000 people with expertise in technology this year, with monthly pay of up to NT$48,000. College graduates with a technology-related degree could receive a starting monthly salary of NT$37,000, the company said. The hiring spree comes as it expects to face its largest-ever amount of retirement applications over the next five years. A total of 581 employees retired in the first half of this year, it said.
AIRLINES
Bamboo eyes more routes
Bamboo Airways Co Ltd, Vietnam’s fifth airline, said that it plans to operate more routes between Taiwan and Vietnam — including the popular tourist destination of Ha Long Bay, Nha Trang, Hanoi and Phu Quoc in September — after it launched direct flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Da Nang on Tuesday. The round-trip flights, operated on Airbus SE A321neo aircraft every five days, are the first international route served by the airline. Bamboo Airways said that it plans to extend its flights to Taiwan and onward to the US, as well as service other routes to neighboring countries such as Japan and South Korea by 2022.
MOTORCYCLES
Harley, Qianjiang to team up
Harley-Davidson Inc is to partner with China’s Qianjiang Motorcycle Co (錢江摩托) to produce a new smaller motorcycle. Harley-Davidson on Wednesday said that the new bike would have an engine displacement of 338cc, by far the smallest engine it has ever made, and would be sold in China starting at the end of next year. The new model would initially be sold in China, one of the world’s largest motorcycle markets, before it is introduced to other Asian markets, Harley-Davidson said. Qianjiang is majority controlled by Geely Holding Group Co (吉利控股), a Chinese company that owns the Volvo brand of cars.
SMARTPHONES
iPhone demand weak: bank
Apple Inc could be seeing weaker-than-expected demand for its iPhone product line, especially in China, JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Monday. The macroeconomic uncertainty “is likely to drive greater headwinds to the smartphone market,” the US bank wrote in a note. JPMorgan lowered its iPhone shipment forecasts for the second quarter through the fourth quarter, dropping them by 4 percent to 139.5 million units. Credit Suisse Group AG said that the pace of decline for iPhone shipments in China has improved this quarter due to price cuts, but they were still down 4 percent compared with the year-ago period.
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