Gas, diesel prices drop
Domestic retail gasoline and diesel prices will both drop by NT$0.8 per liter today to reflect the slide in global crude prices, state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and privately run Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) reported yesterday.
After the price drop, CPC’s price for a liter of 98-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$25.2, 95-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$23.7, 92-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$23 and diesel is NT$20.
Gasoline prices fell to their lowest level in 45 months, while the price of diesel fell to its lowest level in 40 months.
Quanta reports Q3 increase
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world’s largest contract manufacturer of notebook computers, reported an unexpected increase in third-quarter profit, helped by a one-time foreign-exchange gain.
Net income climbed to NT$7.21 billion (US$220 million), or NT$1.98 per share, from NT$5.24 billion a year earlier, or NT$1.51 a share, the Taoyuan-based company said in a statement yesterday. Quanta was expected to post profit of NT$4.63 billion, the median of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The company posted a foreign-exchange gain of NT$2.13 billion in the third quarter, Quanta said.
Quanta expects PC shipments next year to rise 15 percent to 20 percent from this year, in line with market forecasts. The company, however, cut its PC shipments forecast for this year, expecting shipments of up to 38 million units from the previous 40 million because of the weak market outlook.
Evergreen posts decline
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Asia’s biggest container-shipping line, posted a 78 percent decline in nine-month profit as the global economic slowdown dampened demand for cargo services.
Net income fell to NT$1.49 billion, or NT$0.48 a share, from NT$6.84 billion, or NT$2.23 a share, the Taipei-based company said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing yesterday.
Next Media may expand
Next Media Ltd (壹傳媒集團), the Hong Kong-listed publisher of the Apple Daily newspaper and Next Magazine, said it was in talks to expand the company’s media business in Taiwan.
No “concrete plans” have been reached in discussions with independent third parties, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday, without identifying who it was talking to.
The South China Morning Post yesterday reported that Next Media is in talks to buy Taiwan’s China Times for as much as NT$20 billion. The article cited anonymous sources and neither its claims nor similar claims in the Hong Kong Economic Journal were confirmed by the company.
Demand slump hurts Chartered
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd(許特)the world’s third-largest maker of customized chips, said losses this quarter would mount after posting its biggest deficit in five quarters as demand slumped.
The net loss in the three months ending Dec. 31 may range from US$52 million to US$62 million, the Singapore-based company said yesterday. Chartered had profit of US$5.9 million on sales of US$356.2 million a year earlier.
The third-quarter net loss was US$24.4 million, or US$0.11 per American depositary share, compared with a profit of US$114.8 million, or US$0.40, a year earlier, Chartered said.
The chipmaker expects sales in the current period of US$362 million to US$374 million, the statement said. That’s lower than the US$389 million median analyst estimate. It will update fourth-quarter guidance on Dec. 12.
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
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).
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
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