STEELMAKERS
CSC posts income drop
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s biggest steel maker, yesterday posted a 73 percent decline in operating income from NT$602 million (US$18.5 million) in August to NT$164 million last month amid falling steel prices. That brought the company’s third-quarter operating income to NT$828 million, down 79 percent from NT$3.93 billion in the second quarter. Pre-tax profit dropped 72 percent to NT$1.3 billion last quarter from NT$4.57 billion in the prior quarter, while revenue fell by 8 percent from NT$73.56 billion to NT$67.7 billion, the company said.
PANEL MAKERS
AUO loses third spot
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) lost third spot to China’s BOE Technology Group Co (京東方) on the ranking of the world’s major LCD panel makers during the first three quarters of the year, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. AUO shipped 20.22 million flat panels during the first three quarters, compared with BOE’s 24.77 million, TrendForce’s data showed. South Korea’s LG Display Co, Samsung Electronics Co and Taiwan’s Innolux Corp (群創) remained the world’s top three LCD panel suppliers, TrendForce said.
BANKING
Exposure to China reduced
State-run banks lowered their business exposure to China to 64 percent of their net worth last month, from 68 percent a month earlier and compared with 70 percent a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The ministry issued the statement in response to local media reports that state-run banks make long-term unsecured loans to companies in China, raising concerns over their risk management as China’s economy slows. Most loans of state-run banks to Chinese firms are syndicated loans, which were made following proper reviews of borrowers’ credit profiles, the ministry said, adding that it will improve risk oversight.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Acer touts German debut
Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said its subsidiary MPS Energy Inc (聯永基) and “Build Your Own Cloud” partner Studio X-Gene Co (創意庫) this week showcased their joint effort on an electric all-terrain vehicle (eATV) at a trade fair for electric and hybrid mobility in Munich, Germany. Acer said the eATV “X Terran” was designed by Studio X-Gene and utilizes MPS Energy’s battery management system technology. It also demonstrates Acer’s latest cloud-computing research and development in the connected-car field, Acer said in a statement. The PC brand established MPS Energy in July as part of its foray into the vehicle electricity and mobile power businesses.
BANKING
BOT inks tie-up with Mizuho
In a bid to reach out beyond its highly saturated home market and the nation’s low interest rates, Bank of Taiwan (BOT, 臺灣銀行) on Tuesday inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mizuho Bank in Tokyo, after inking an MOU with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, Japan’s largest bank, in July. The MOU with Mizuho will pave the way for partnerships in businesses — including syndicated loans, project and trade financing, and electronic financial services — with Japan’s third-largest bank, Bank of Taiwan chairperson Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠) said. Bank of Taiwan said its partnerships with Japan’s leading banks will improve services in the two nations. It said it hopes that the exchange of experience will aid joint expansion plans in Southeast Asian markets.
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,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
China has threatened severe economic retaliation against Japan if Tokyo further restricts sales and servicing of chipmaking equipment to Chinese firms, complicating US-led efforts to cut the world’s second-largest economy off from advanced technology. Senior Chinese officials have repeatedly outlined that position in recent meetings with their Japanese counterparts, people familiar with the matter said. Toyota Motor Corp privately told officials in Tokyo that one specific fear in Japan is that Beijing could react to new semiconductor controls by cutting the country’s access to critical minerals essential for automotive production, the people said, declining to be named discussing private affairs. Toyota is among
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