■ TAIEX edges down 0.4 percent
Shares fell yesterday as investors exhibited caution ahead of local elections over the weekend. The TAIEX dropped 23.65 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,179.82, on turnover of NT$80.47 billion (US$2.39 billion). The New Taiwan dollar slid NT$0.047 to close at NT$33.563 against its US counterpart on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Lower steel prices in the face of oversupply also played a part in yesterday's stock market drop, traders said. China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation's largest steel producer by revenue, led decliners and was the heaviest traded stock on the mainboard. China Steel's shares fell 3 percent to close at NT$24.35.
■ Ya Hsin to borrow US$97M
Ya Hsin Industrial Co (雅新), the world's third biggest printed circuit board manufacturer, is borrowing US$97 million to expand production in Suzhou, China. Ya Hsin hired Japan's Mizuho Corporate Bank's Taiwanese subsidiary, to arrange the loan, which will be marketed mainly to Chinese lenders, bankers involved in the deal said. The five-year revolving credit will be signed today in Suzhou, the bankers said.
■ Nokia expanding in China
Finnish mobile telephone giant Nokia Oyj will increase its production of mobile telephones in China to meet growing demand, the company said yesterday. The expansion was aimed at providing "more capacity and flexibility to meet the growing market demand worldwide, especially China and Asia," Nokia said. The production will be located at Nokia's facility in Dongguan, China. The expansion will begin during third quarter 2006.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
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
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
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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