■ CPC hikes gas prices
State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) announced yesterday it would hike wholesale gasoline and diesel prices by NT$0.3 per liter. The new rates take effect at midnight tonight. The adjusted retail prices for 98-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$28.1, 95-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$26.6, 92-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$25.9 and top-grade diesel oil is NT$22.6 per liter, CPC said.
The adjusted range is calculated by the price change of the West Texas Intermediate crude over the past week in New York trade, CPC said. The crude was US$57.1 per barrel last Monday and hit US$58.3 per barrel on Monday, it said.
■ ProMOS inks loan deal
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), the nation's third-largest manufacturer of memory chips for computers, signed a five year deal yesterday with 12 banks including Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) and Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) to obtain NT$20 billion (US$602 million) syndicated loan to expand an advanced 12-inch factory.
■ Shares rise on rebound
Shares closed 0.37 percent higher yesterday on the back of a cautious technical rebound after sharp losses on Monday, with sentiment hit by a probe into the Financial Supervisory Commission, dealers said.
The TAIEX added 26.12 points at 7,021.32, on turnover of NT$58.50 billion. Decliners led risers 561 to 505, with 218 stocks unchanged.
On the Taipei foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar dropped NT$0.039 to NT$33.260 against the US dollar, on turnover of US$682 million.
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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