■ Electronics
Hon Hai investing in China
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, said it plans to invest US$163.5 million more on electronics factories in China. Hon Hai's board has approved seven investments in plants that make mobile phones, their parts and computer components, according to statements to the Taiwan Stock Exchange the Taipei-based company filed on Friday. The projects will bring the company's total approved investment in China to US$1.11 billion, Hon Hai said. Hon Hai's investments in China so far account for 8.5 percent of assets and 15 percent of shareholders' equity, the company said in a statement. Hon Hai's clients include Apple Computer Inc.
■ Internet
Google tackles porn in Brazil
Google Inc will help Brazilian authorities identify individuals accused of using the company's Orkut social networking service to spread child pornography and hate speech on the Internet, Google spokeswoman Debbie Frost said on Friday. Google will help detect content within Orkut linked to child pornography and hate speech against blacks, Jews and homosexuals, which is illegal in Brazil. Frost said material on Orkut could be reviewed or preserved, pending a court order. But Google has appealed a federal judge's order to turn over Orkut users' numeric Internet addresses, which can help identify them.
■ Trade
WTO to meet about Vietnam
The WTO said on Friday that its 149 members would meet on Nov. 7 to consider giving the green light for Vietnam's accession. The accession, and a debate on a report by negotiators outlining the deal, was included in the official agenda for the WTO's executive General Council meeting on Nov. 7 sent out by Director General Pascal Lamy. Trade sources have said that step is largely expected to be a formality, removing the last foreign hurdle in the way of its admission to the global free trading system within the next three months. The meeting in Geneva will take place just five days before Vietnam hosts a summit of the APEC Forum.
■ Currency
Thailand reins in baht
Bank of Thailand governor Tarisa Watanagase said the central bank had intervened to slow the baht's rise, as the Thai unit remained near a seven-year high yesterday. "The Bank of Thailand has intervened in the market for fear that the quick and sharp gain of the baht might hurt our economy, after massive capital inflows from the United States following the Fed decision to maintain interest rates," she told reporters on Friday. Tarisa declined to say how much the Thai central bank had spent to soften the currency. The baht closed on Friday at 36.87-89 to the US dollar, the highest level since January 2000. Yesterday it was trading at 36.715 in New York.
■ Retail
Daiei to discuss alliance
Struggling Japanese retail giant Daiei Inc will hold its first talks about a possible alliance with rival Aeon Co early next month, Kyodo News agency said late on Friday, citing Marubeni Corp's president, Nobuo Katsumata, a top Daiei shareholder. Daiei and its biggest investor, trading house Marubeni, said earlier this month they had given Aeon exclusive negotiating rights through March 31. The talks will be aimed at allowing Aeon to buy about a 15 percent stake in Daiei from Marubeni, and giving it the right to buy roughly a 20 percent stake in Maruetsu Inc from Daiei.
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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