■ Chip sales balance LCD gains
Shares were flat yesterday, as selling of chip packaging stocks countered gains in LCD panel shares. The TAIEX fell 3.18 points, or 0.04 percent, to 6531.59, on turnover of NT$113.22 billion (US$3.42 billion). "LCD stocks were riding on hopes that strong demand for LCD televisions during the Christmas holidays will likely boost earnings growth for Taiwan's panel makers," said Jeffrey Cheng, an analyst with Yuanta Core Pacific Capital Man-agement (元大京華投顧). Panel maker AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) rose 2.2 percent to NT$48, while Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) advanced 4.8 percent to NT$44.
■ Hua Nan approves share sale
Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co (華南金控) said its board has approved a proposal to sell about 157 million shares in Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) as the government attempts to reduce the number of lenders under its control. The shares represent a 3.7 percent stake in Taiwan Business Bank, Hua Nan said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange late on Monday.
■ NT dollar drops
The New Taiwan dollar fell for the first day in three on concern the central bank will sell the currency to maintain export competitiveness with Japanese rival goods, traders said. The yen's 8.5 percent decline against the NT dollar this year makes the nation's products less competitive abroad, they added. The local currency declined NT$0.034 to close at NT$33.132 against the US dollar yesterday.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
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