■ Delegation investigates RFID
A Taiwanese delegation departed for the US over the weekend, aiming to gain insight about the development of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology there, the National Science Council said in a statement yesterday. The 36-member delegation, which consists of government officials, industry associations and private companies, is scheduled to visit various US government agencies and companies such as IBM Corp and Oracle Corp between July 31 and Aug. 9. "The application of RFID has become a global trend since the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart earlier this year required its major [top 100] suppliers to adopt the technology [by January 2005]," Minister without Portfolio Lin Ferng-ching (林逢慶), who is also head of the delegation, said in the statement. RFID, an identifying and tracking technology, allows tiny chips (tags) to communicate with detectors wirelessly and transmit information from a unique serial number to complex product details. The technology is now applied to many fields, including national defense, logistics management, retail inventory management, and is expected to affect industrial supply chains, medical treatment and biotech in the future, Lin said
■ CSMC halves IPO plan
CSMC Technologies Corp (華潤上華科技), a China-based supplier of chips for consumer electronics, toys and watches, is reviving its initial public offer by slashing the amount it raises by half after investors shunned the sale. CSMC plans to sell 621 million shares at between HK$0.50 and HK$0.54 each in the revived sale, raising as much as HK$335.3 million (US$43 million), chief financial officer Frank Lai (黎汝雄) said. That's as much as half the maximum amount it planned to raise in June. The company last month failed to complete its initial public offer after investors bid at a price lower than the range marketed to them. The reduced price range represents between 1 to 1.05 times its 2004 forecast book value, Lai said. The company plans to re-open the public offer today and investors have until Friday to place their orders, Lai said. It plans to start trading in Hong Kong on Aug. 13. The revived sale comes after shares of its peer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際集成電路) rose 6.4 percent since last week. The first Chinese chipmaker to sell shares overseas posted its third straight quarterly profit by tripling sales last week.
■ Uni-President may exit JVs
Uni-President Group (統一集團) is planning to dispose of its stakes in property and life insurance joint ventures with Allianz Holding AG, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday. Uni-President may want to sell its stake in both the Allianz President Insurance Co and Allianz President General Insurance, the paper said, citing Kao Ching-yuan (高清愿), head of Uni-President. Currently two insurers -- Tokyo Marine & Fire Insurance Co and Taiwan Fire & Marine Insurance Co -- are interested in buying Allianz President General Insurance, the paper added.
■ NT rises in line with yen, euro
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart in line with the strength in Japanese yen and euro, dealers said. The US dollar eased against the yen and euro in Asian trade yesterday after the US economy grew at a weaker-than-expected rate in the second quarter this year, they added. The NT dollar rose NT$0.033 against the greenback to close at NT$33.103 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$260 million.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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