ENERGY
Firms vow to cut consumption
Six domestic companies have vowed to cut energy consumption by NT$270 million (US$8.55 million) and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 69,000 tonnes through collaboration with the government’s three-year energy-saving drive, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The ministry said the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions would require the equivalent of 179 Daan Forest Parks (大安森林公園). The companies involved are Chung Hwa Pulp Corp (中華紙漿), Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業), Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corp (東和鋼鐵), Kuozui Motor Ltd (國瑞汽車), Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光能源) and Savior Lifetec Corp (展旺生命科技), the ministry said.
CHIPMAKERS
Nanya income declines
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest DRAM chipmaker, yesterday reported second-quarter net income of NT$4.25 billion, down 30.1 percent year-on-year and 32.4 percent quarter-on-quarter. Earnings per share (EPS) were NT$1.75, the lowest level in the past six quarters. For the first half of the year, net income totaled NT$10.55 billion, with EPS of NT$4.36. Revenue for last quarter contracted by 7.32 percent to NT$11.16 billion from NT$12.03 billion in the first quarter, the company reported earlier this month. Nanya said it still plans to produce 20-nanometer (nm) chips in 2017, but has not decided when to start a fundraising scheme in which it is to issue up to 400 million new shares to finance the construction of the new 20nm factory.
SEMICONDUCTORS
King Yuan to buy back shares
King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子), a domestic chip packaging and testing company, plans to buy back 30 million of its shares, or 2.52 percent of outstanding stock, on the open market, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. King Yuan said the share buyback would begin today and run through Sept. 28. It plans to repurchase the shares at between NT$14.39 and NT$38.21 per share, the filing showed. King Yuan shares ended 4.05 percent higher at NT$20.05 yesterday. The company also reported second-quarter profit of NT$680 million, down 13 percent year-on-year, but up 13.45 percent quarter-on-quarter, with EPS of NT$0.57. In the first half of the year, net income totaled NT$1.28 billion, up 5.4 percent from a year earlier, at NT$1.07 per share.
ELECTRONICS
E Ink, Netronix eye venture
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s largest e-paper display supplier, yesterday announced a partnership with e-reader maker Netronix Inc (振曜科技) to set up a joint venture in the economic and technology development zone in Yangzhou in China’s Jiangsu Province. The new venture — in which E Ink is to hold a 49 percent share and Netronix a 51 percent share — is to focus on system integration and product assembly services for e-paper applications, which are to be used in smartphone back covers, electronic shelf labels and e-paper billboards. It is set to start mass production in October, E Ink said.
INTERNET
Addcn HK unit to break even
Addcn Technology Co Ltd (數字科技), which operates online trading platforms on which people can sell cars, houses, clothing and virtual treasures, yesterday said it expected its online property classified advertising Web site in Hong Kong to break even next year after beginning operation last year.
CHIP HANG-UP: Surging memorychip prices would deal a blow to smartphone sales this year, potentially hindering one of MediaTek’s biggest sources of revenue MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip designer, yesterday said its new artificial intelligence (AI) chips used in data centers are to account for 20 percent of its total revenue next year, as cloud service providers race to deploy AI infrastructure to meet voracious demand. MediaTek is believed to be developing tensor processing units for Google, which are used in AI applications. While it did not confirm such reports, MediaTek said its new application-specific IC (ASIC) business would be a new growth engine for the company. It again hiked its forecast for the addressable ASIC market to US$70 billion by 2028, compared
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
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