SOLAR WAFERS
Green Energy reports growth
Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), the nation’s biggest solar wafer maker, yesterday reported 16.7 percent monthly growth in revenue for last month, from NT$1.32 billion (US$41.8 million) to NT$1.54 billion. On an annual basis, the figure represented growth of 14.7 percent from NT$1.34 billion. The company said it plans to expand its reach in the US and Asian markets. Green Energy said factory utilization was more than 95 percent last month.
COMMUNICATIONS
ICT firms form group
Taiwanese information and communications technology (ICT) companies yesterday established a joint industry association, seeking to become a member of the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to have a say in the common standards for next-generation mobile networks. The Taiwan Association of Information and Communications Standards will also help companies develop intellectual property for sectors including communications, connected devices and smart buildings, said Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) vice chairman Jonathan Tsang (曾鏘聲), who is president of the new association. Working with organizations like the 3GPP can help Taiwanese companies improve their patent portfolios and help them avoid paying huge royalties to Western companies that own essential patents in the ICT industry, Tsang said at the inauguration ceremony.
ONLINE SHOPPING
Web sales on the rise
Electronic commerce transactions increased 15 percent to more than NT$900 billion in Taiwan last year from the previous year, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Cho Shi-chao (卓士昭) said yesterday. E-commerce transactions are expected to break the NT$1 trillion mark this year, Cho said. Cho made the remarks during a ceremony at the Nangang Software Park in Taipei, during which he officially opened this year’s Taiwan Online Shopping Festival. The two-week festival, which runs through Feb. 18, has drawn 27 online and mobile shopping platform operators, including Momo.com Inc (富邦媒), Save & Safe (大買家) and Yahoo Kimo Super Mall (Yahoo!奇摩購物中心), which are associated with 100,000 suppliers.
CURRENCY
Tranches issued, planned
Five domestic and international companies have or are set to issue six tranches of foreign currency corporate bonds in Taiwan this week, the GRETAI Securities Market (GTSM, 櫃買中心) said yesterday. The five issuers will boost the number of companies that have sold and will sell non-New Taiwan dollar-denominated corporate bonds in Taiwan to 58, a new high, the GTSM said. JPMorgan Chase & Co, a US brokerage, issued a tranche of US$215 million in corporate bonds yesterday with a maturity of 30 years and a zero coupon rate. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, another US-based financial giant, sold US$641 million in corporate bonds, with a 30 year maturity and a zero coupon rate. Also yesterday, Cayman Ton Yi Holdings Ltd, an overseas subsidiary wholly owned by Taiwan-based tin can supplier Ton Yi Industrial Corp (統一實業), issued 142 million yuan (US$22.72 million) in bonds on the local market. The tranche carried a maturity of three years and a coupon rate of 4.20 percent. The London branch of Credit Suisse AG is today scheduled to issue two tranches of international bonds, including one for US$400 million bond and another of A$60 million (US$46.2 million), while Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦) is scheduled to sell US$100 million worth of bonds.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
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