■ GREEN TECHNOLOGY
ReneSola wins contracts
ReneSola Ltd, the world’s largest recycler of scrap wafers used in solar panels, said it won two contracts to supply 836 megawatts of wafers to two Taiwan-based panel makers. Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光) will buy 434 megawatts of wafers from October through the end of 2013, and Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽光電) will buy 402 megawatts under a contract that began last month and will continue through the end of 2013, Jiashan, China-based ReneSola said on Friday.
■ FOODSTUFFS
Taisugar restricting sales
Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) said on Friday it is restricting sales of the sweetener to prevent hoarding after a surge in demand last month. The limits on wholesale transactions have been in place since Monday, after sales last month rose 36 percent from a year earlier, according a statement on Taisugar’s Web site. Taisugar controls between 60 percent and 70 percent of Taiwan’s sugar market.
■ POSTAL SERVICES
Pos Malaysia bids start
Ekuiti Nasional Bhd and CVC Capital Partners are putting in a joint bid to buy a 32.2 percent stake in Pos Malaysia Bhd from state investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the Edge newspaper reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The Sapura Group, Scomi Marine Bhd and local businessmen G. Gnanalingam and Loo Hooi Keat are also eyeing the stake in the postal services group, the newspaper said.
■ MEXICO
Second-quarter GDP up 7.6%
Mexico’s economy grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, the largest quarterly jump since the global economic crisis plunged the country into recession. The National Institute for Statistics and Geography reported on Friday that the GDP increase was driven mostly by a 7.8 percent growth in industrial output, a 7.4 percent increase in the service sector and a 4.8 percent climb in agricultural production. In the first quarter, the economy grew by 4.3 percent. Last year, Mexico’s GDP declined by 6.5 percent, the largest contraction in decades.
■ TECHNOLOGY
Argentina shuts ISP
Argentina’s government on Friday ordered the closure of one of the nation’s three leading Internet service providers, demanding that Grupo Clarin immediately inform “each and every one” of its more than 1 million customers that they have 90 days to find new ways of getting online. The order says Grupo Clarin illegally absorbed the Fibertel company through its Cablevision subsidiary in January of last year, because it failed to obtain prior approval from the commerce secretary. Cablevision denied that on Friday, citing a previous approval obtained in 2003, and planned to appeal.
■ UNITED STATES
Regulators shut 8 banks
ShoreBank Corp, the Chicago lender operating under a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) cease-and-desist order for 13 months, and seven other banks were shut by regulators as this year’s bank failures climbed to 118. ShoreBank’s 15 branches, including those in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit, will open as Urban Partnership Bank, according to statements from the FDIC. Regulators also closed four banks in California, two in Florida and one in Virginia. This year’s bank failures will surpass last year’s total of 140, FDIC Chairperson Sheila Bair said last month.
INVESTOR RESILIENCE? An analyst said that despite near-term pressures, foreign investors tend to view NT dollar strength as a positive signal for valuation multiples Morgan Stanley has flagged a potential 10 percent revenue decline for Taiwan’s tech hardware sector this year, as a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar begins to dent the earnings power of major exporters. In what appears to be the first such warning from a major foreign brokerage, the US investment bank said the currency’s strength — fueled by foreign capital inflows and expectations of US interest rate cuts — is compressing profit margins for manufacturers with heavy exposure to US dollar-denominated revenues. The local currency has surged about 10 percent against the greenback over the past quarter and yesterday breached
MARKET FACTORS: Navitas Semiconductor Inc said that Powerchip is to take over from TSMC as its supplier of high-voltage gallium nitride chips Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday in a statement said that it would phase out its compound semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) business over the next two years, citing market dynamics. The decision would not affect its financial targets announced previously, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said. “We are working closely with our customers to ensure a smooth transition and remain committed to meeting their needs during this period,” it said. “Our focus continues to be on delivering sustained value to our partners and the market.” TSMC’s latest move came unexpectedly, as the chipmaker had said in its annual report that it has
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
ELECTRONICS: Strong growth in cloud services and smart consumer electronics offset computing declines, helping the company to maintain sales momentum, Hon Hai said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday announced that its sales for last month rose 10 percent year-on-year, driven by strong growth in cloud and networking products amid the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company, also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), reported consolidated sales of NT$540.24 billion (US$18.67 billion) for the month, the highest ever for the period, and a 10.09 percent increase from a year earlier, although it was down 12.26 percent from the previous month. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said its cloud
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