CHIPMAKERS
Inotera buys equipment
DRAM chipmaker Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) yesterday said it has bought a batch of equipment from parent company Micron Technology Inc for NT$411 million (US$12.5 million), according to a company statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Inotera said it would use the equipment to produce memory chips. The chipmaker is scheduled to convert all of its production capacity to 20-nanometer chips by the second quarter of next year.
COMPONENTS
Ichia sales continue to fall
Keypad producer Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) yesterday reported that its sales last month declined by 6 percent sequentially from NT$598 million to NT$563 million, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The reduced figure represents an annual decline of 32 percent from NT$830 milllion. In the first 11 months of this year, revenue plunged by 34.29 percent to NT$6.88 billion, compared with NT$1.05 billion in the same period last year.
POWER SUPPLIES
Delta eyes efficient solutions
Power supply unit producer Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said that improving energy efficiency remains the most economical path toward reducing carbon emissions and mitigating the impacts of climate change, ahead of the company’s participation at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. The nation’s top power supply producer said that its industry-leading technologies have achieved a conversion efficiency of 98.7 percent for its photovoltaic inverters and 97.5 percent for telecom power supplies. Between 2010 and last year, the company’s power management products have yielded 14.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to about 7.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, it said. The company is to introduce its plans to integrate a wide portfolio of energy-efficient solutions and expertise in constructing green buildings in Paris next week.
LIFE INSURERS
Shin Kong to buy UK asset
Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), the main subsidiary and biggest profit source of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), said it plans to buy an office building in London for ￡135.15 million (US$203.73 million), the company said in a statement released on Monday. This is the first overseas property investment made by the insurance company, it said. The insurer is to purchase 40 Gracechurch, a seven-story building with 5,871m2 of floor space, which it expects to yield investment returns of more than 4 percent annually. The purchase has been approved by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
ELECTRONICS
BungBungame sponsors 101
Taipei 101 yesterday announced that local technology company BungBungame Inc (戲智科技) has agreed to sponsor the skyscraper’s annual fireworks show this year. The announcement came after a search that started in June for a suitable sponsor willing to put up NT$45 million to cover the cost of the skyscraper’s 11th annual fireworks show to welcome in the new year. Themed “Nature is Future,” the display is being designed to show images of fish and plants to raise environmental awareness. At 238 seconds, it is to be the longest performance since the skyscraper’s formal inauguration on Dec. 31, 2004, according to the building’s administration. BungBungame was established in 2008 as a software developer and has created several apps for devices across the Android, iOS and Windows platforms.
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
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
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
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
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