TRADE
Investments in Indonesia rise
Investments in Indonesia have grown rapidly as the New Southbound Policy begins to take hold, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Investments in the first quarter of this year alone reached US$224 million, outpacing last year’s annual total, the ministry said. Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) attributed the rise to more frequent investment forums and discussion events, which has helped companies on both sides overcome a variety of barriers. Indonesia is the nation’s second-most popular investment destination in Southeast Asia, with inflows creating more than 100,000 jobs there, Wang said.
ELECTRONICS
HTC reacts to lawsuit
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it has contacted its smartphone supply chains worldwide to make sure that its operations and consumers will not be affected by a Nichia Corp lawsuit. The filing came after the Japanese LED firm said it filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany against HTC, its subsidiary in Germany and e-commerce platform operator Digital River Ireland Ltd over the HTC U Ultra smartphone. Nichia claims that the HTC U Ultra, which features white LED products, infringes on Nichia’s YAG patent. HTC said it always respects intellectual property rights.
FINANCE
CDFH rating unchanged
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) yesterday kept its credit rating for China Development Financial Holding Corp (CDFH, 中華開發金控) unchanged, saying that its plan to buy a 25.33 percent stake in China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽保險) might not weaken its credit profile. “The purchase will have a minimal impact on its credit profile, but will broaden its business scope,” the local arm of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said in a report. China Development Financial could deem China Life as a subsidiary after the acquisition, Taiwan Ratings said. The ratings firm also stood by its “stable” credit outlook for China Development Financial, saying the acquisition might not alter its business model much.
CRIME
Credit card fraud surges
The National Credit Card Center (聯合信用卡中心) yesterday said that credit card fraud last year surged 55 percent annually to NT$1.27 billion (US$41.8 million). Leaks of credit card numbers stored on online and television shopping platforms accounted for 88.7 percent of credit card fraud, followed by counterfeit cards and lost or stolen cards, the center said. It said that multiple purchases of less than NT$1,000 are made using stolen cards to avoid cardholders receiving automated notifications. People should ask banks to send notifications on all unusual purchases, as well as use one-time passwords, it said.
SHOEMAKERS
Feng Tay profit falls
Feng Tay Enterprise Co (豐泰鞋業) on Wednesday posted net profit of NT$1.92 billion for the first half of this year, a 16.8 percent annual decline, dragged down by a strong New Taiwan dollar. The figure translated into earnings per share of NT$2.88, down from NT$3.46 a year earlier, the company said in a statement. In the first six months of the year, the firm sold 49.5 million pairs of shoes, a 2.8 percent increase from same period last year, data showed. Feng Tay forecast that its shoe sales for this quarter would grow 16 percent year-on-year and 3 percent quarter-on-quarter to 26 million pairs.
TECH TITANS: Amazon’s latest chip joins Google in competing for the 90 percent market share held by Nvidia, which claims it is ‘a generation ahead of the industry’ Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday launched its in-house-built Trainium3 artificial intelligence (AI) chip, marking a significant push to compete with Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market for AI computing power. The move intensifies competition in the AI chip market, where Nvidia dominates with an estimated 80 to 90 percent market share for products used in training large language models that power the likes of ChatGPT. Google last week caused tremors in the industry when it was reported that Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc would employ Google AI chips in data centers, signaling new competition for Nvidia. This followed the release last month of
INSULATED: The company said it is less exposed to global complications, as it has built a strong footprint worldwide, and has multiple sources of rare earths and raw minerals Merck Group yesterday said it would ramp up production next year at its new flagship facility in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) to satisfy growing demand for advanced semiconductor materials and specialty gases, and to address supply resilience issues amid mounting geopolitical risks. Merck made the remarks during a news conference before the inauguration of its 500 million euros (US$582.1 million) facility, which is also to supply other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, it said. Merck executive board deputy chair and electronics CEO Kai Beckmann told reporters the company adopted a “local-for-local” strategy about seven years ago to address the cycle time of
Two companies wholly owned by the daughter of the founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Monday reported to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that they would dispose of all of the Hon Hai shares they hold. In filings with the exchange, Hong Wei Investment Co (鋐維) said it would sell the 2.771 million Hon Hai shares it holds and Frontier Investment Corp (承鋒投資) said it would sell its 2.409 million Hon Hai shares from tomorrow until Jan. 3 next year. The two companies are wholly owned and chaired by Shirley Gou (郭曉玲), the eldest daughter of Hon Hai founder Terry
RIDING THE WAVE: The race to build AI infrastructure has lifted the valuations of top memory makers, such as Micron, amid dwindling inventories and supply challenges Micron Technology Inc is to spend ￥1.5 trillion (US$9.6 billion) to build a plant in western Japan to make memory chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, the Nikkei reported on Saturday. The move comes as Micron seeks to diversify advanced chip production outside of Taiwan, the Nikkei article said, citing people familiar with the matter. The new factory will manufacture high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component for working with AI processors such as those made by Nvidia Corp, the report said. Micron would build the facility within the compound of its Hiroshima plant, starting in May next year, with plans to launch
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