CONSTRUCTION
Ruentex eyes projects
Supermarket operator and property developer Ruentex Development Co (潤泰創新) yesterday said it would book construction revenue from the Song Tao Yuan (松濤苑) project in Taipei’s Boai Special District (博愛) and from the Wan Hua Yuan (萬花園) project in Wanhua District (萬華) in the second half, as the number of available units left for sale has gradually declined as a result of a market downturn. However, the company expects construction revenue to increase next year, as expects to see contributions from the Neihu Zhan (內湖讚) project near the Neihu MRT Station and from the Ming Feng (明峰) project in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止), Ruentex Development president Li Chih-hung (李志宏) told an investors’ conference in Taipei. In the first eight months, the company’s total revenue plunged 30.1 percent year-on-year to NT$5.89 billion (US$179.8 million).
BANKING
TCB inks Myanmar deal
Taiwan Cooperative Bank (TCB, 合作金庫銀行) in Taipei yesterday inked a memorandum of understanding on business cooperation with Co-operative Bank Ltd of Myanmar. Taiwan Cooperative said its counterpart is the third-largest private bank by total assets in the former junta-ruled Southeast Asian country and expects the partnership to facilitate Taiwanese businesspeople’s investments there. Taiwan Cooperative last month received regulatory approval to set up a representative office in Yangon, which is expected to start operation by the end of this year, the lender said.
CHIP DESIGNERS
ARM to launch facility
UK chip designer ARM Holdings PLC yesterday said it is scheduled to launch a central processing unit (CPU) design center in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) on Tuesday next week, focusing on the development of the next generation of its Cortex-M processors. The company said the CPU design center will be its fourth and the first in Asia. The Cortex-M processors are mainly used in devices in the Internet of Things market, as well as wearable gadgets and embedded applications, ARM said.
AIRLINES
CAL launches new route
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), the nation’s largest carrier, yesterday launched a new flight service between Kaohsiung and Changzhou in Jiangsu Province, China. CAL next month plans to provide new flights between Kaohsiung and Kumamoto, and between Kaohsiung and Fukuoka in Japan in addition to flights between Tainan and Osaka, with the carrier aiming to generate more revenue to buck the industry trend of a traditionally slow season in the fourth quarter. CAL reported cumulative revenue of NT$98.76 billion from January to last month, down 1.17 percent from the same period last year.
JAPAN
S&P cuts credit rating
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Service yesterday downgraded its sovereign credit rating for Japan by one notch from “AA-” to “A+,” saying the nation was unlikely to revive economic growth and end deflation within the next few years. “Despite showing initial promise, the government’s strategy to revive economic growth and end deflation appears unlikely to reverse this deterioration in the next two to three years,” S&P said in a statement. The downgrade came a day after the central bank held fire on expanding its monetary easing program, while economists warned more stimulus could be needed to boost the sagging economy.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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