CPC lowers LNG, LPG prices
State-run refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) has lowered prices for both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) this month to reflect declining global oil prices.
Effective today, CPC cut the price per cubic meter of LNG by 12.58 percent on average from last month, saying that an average consumption of between 30m3 and 45m3 per month would mean savings of between NT$61.2 and NT$91.8 (US$1.93 and US$2.89) for each household, according to a press release.
Prices for household LPG are to drop by NT$4.6 per kilogram and by NT$2.5 per liter for LPG used in cars, CPC said.
As a result, the price of a 20kg household gas cylinder would drop by NT$92, the company said.
Central bank auctions CDs
The central bank on Wednesday auctioned NT$120 billion in 364-day certificates of deposit (CDs), as it seeks to absorb excess funds in the market.
The auction yielded an average interest rate of 0.596 percent, the central bank said in a statement. That was lower than market expectations and declined for a third straight month.
The bank did not comment on the lower average yield in the latest 364-day CD sale.
The bank, which now has NT$1.64 trillion in outstanding 364-day CDs and two-year CDs, said its sale of such instruments was the equivalent of increasing the bank reserve requirement ratio by more than 5 percentage points.
Foreign interest boosts buys
Foreign institutional investors bought a net of more than NT$350 billion worth of local shares on the main board last year, according to statistics compiled by the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE).
The TWSE said that strong foreign institutional interest boosted the net buys to NT$354.63 billion last year, with the TAIEX rising 695.75 points or 8.08 percent from the previous year.
Accumulated turnover on the main board during the 248 trading sessions last year totaled NT$23.42 trillion, rising 17.54 percent from the NT$19.60 trillion recorded in 2013, with average daily turnover of NT$92.91 billion, compared with NT$79.69 billion in 2013, TWSE said.
Google receives green light
The Investment Commission on Wednesday said it had approved a proposal by Google Inc to add NT$2.1 billion to its investment in a data center in Changhua County.
Google has invested US$600 million to set up a data center in an industrial park in the county.
The additional investment was made through Google affiliate Kohl Holdings Ltd, according to the commission.
Last month, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported that the Google investment project might prompt Microsoft Corp to consider investing at least US$600 million to build a data center in the south this year.
HTC may unveil new Desire
Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) might unveil a new model in its mid-tier Desire series at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, between Sunday and next Friday.
The company published a teaser image on its Sina Weibo (新浪微博) page on Tuesday that said a press event will take place on Sunday in Las Vegas, along with a tag line that reads: “Always Desire more.”
HTC saw its sales bolstered last year by mid-range phones like the Desire 816 and Desire 820. Pre-registrations for the Desire 820s surpassed 1.2 million in China, far exceeding the initial inventory of 50,000 units HTC had prepared for online sales in that country.
Nearly 18% to move to 4G: poll
About 17.7 percent of respondents in a recent survey said they intended to use 4G long-term evolution (LTE) services this year, with Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) subscribers more likely to upgrade to 4G services than subscribers of the two other major telecom operators.
About 22 percent of subscribers surveyed that use Far EasTone services said they wanted to change to 4G services next year, compared with 20 percent for Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and 13 percent for Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Foreseeing Innovative New Digiservices (FIND), a division of the state-funded Institute for Information Industry, said in a statement on Wednesday.
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
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