■ Banking
Forex reserves fall
The nation's foreign-exchange reserves fell last month for the first month-on-month drop in more than four years, the central bank said. The reserves, the third-highest in the world, fell to US$253.56 billion (NT$8.05 trillion) from a record US$253.62 billion in June. The decline was caused by the nation's shrinking trade surplus this year, as well as an increase in the amount of money Taiwanese tourists spent abroad during the summer break, the peak travel season. The last time the country's foreign exchange reserves experienced a month-on-month decline was in June 2001, a spokeswoman said. In the first half of this year, the trade surplus totaled just US$420 million, compared with a US$3.89 billion surplus in the same period last year.
■ Finance
Waterland to hold meeting
Waterland Financial Holding Co (國票金控), the nation's smallest financial service provider, is likely to hold another board meeting on Friday to decide on the pending appointment of its new chairman, after obtaining the Financial Supervisory Commission's approval for the posting on Thursday. The report said Victor Liu (劉維琪), Waterland's chairman-to-be, would seek consensus on his appointment from major shareholders with an all-out effort before convening the board meeting. The management reshuffle at Waterland's subsidiaries, including International Bill Finance Corp (國際票券) and Waterland Securities Co (國票證券), will be discussed once consensus is reached. Nice Group (耐斯) took five of the 11 seats on Waterland's board on June 29 after months of intense competition with another investor group led by Hung San-hsiung (洪三雄). Hung, chairman of Taiwan Financial Asset Services Corp (台灣金服公司), and his supporters grabbed four seats. The Ministry of Finance controls the remainder.
■ Stocks
TAIEX up 2 percent on week
The stock market was closed yesterday due to Typhoon Matsa. But for the week through Thursday, the TAIEX rose 134.03 points or 2.12 percent to 6,446.01, following a 1.08 percent decline the previous week. Average daily turnover for the four days stood at NT$95.56 billion (US$3 billion), down from NT$107.01 billion a week earlier. Dealers said it's likely profit-taking will keep the market on the defensive after shares breached the 10-year moving average of 6,420.
■ Telecoms
Foxconn sells shares
Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康), which makes mobile phones, said it has raised HK$136 million (US$17.5 million) by selling new shares to employees of one of its units. The company sold 26.9 million shares at HK$5.065 apiece, a 17.6 percent discount to the closing price of HK$6.15 on Aug. 3, the unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) said. The new share issue represents 0.387 percent of its enlarged capital.
■ Technology
Hynix slips past Micron
Hynix Semiconductor Inc of South Korea overtook Micron Technology Inc as the world's second-largest maker of computer-memory chips during the second quarter, according to market researcher Isuppli Corp. Hynix's sales of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) fell 13 percent from the first quarter to US$939 million, while Micron's fell 24 percent to US$840 million, Isuppli said. Micron and Hynix have been swapping industry rankings every quarter since last year.
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
RSS