INTERNET
Telecom touts IoT services
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) yesterday said it is working with Tata Communications Ltd to provide local manufacturers and enterprises with Internet of Things (IoT) services in more than 200 nations, leveraging Tata’s IoT network. The IoT services can help local firms connect with more than 600 mobile services providers worldwide, a joint statement said. Chunghwa Telecom is aiming to increase its number of IoT services users from 800 to 1,200 by the end of this year. Healthcare device maker TaiDoc Technology Corp (泰博科技) is among the first wave of users of the IoT services. TaiDoc collects a vast amount of data from its devices, which are sent wirelessly to an IoT management platform for analysis.
AUTOMAKERS
Hotai Motor to pay NT$12
Hotai Motor Co Ltd (和泰), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles, yesterday said its board has approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$12 per common share, representing a payout ratio of about 65 percent. The company made NT$10.12 billion (US$347.3 million) last year, down 5.77 percent from NT$10.74 billion in 2016. Earnings per share dropped to NT$18.52 from NT$19.66. However, revenue rose 5.05 percent year-on-year to NT$181.25 billion from NT$172.53 billion. The car distributor is scheduled to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 21 to vote on the dividend proposal.
STOCK MARKET
Wall Street boosts TAIEX
The TAIEX yesterday closed higher following a strong performance on Wall Street overnight. The benchmark index closed up 146.74 points, or 1.35 percent, at 10,986.79 on turnover of NT$129.68 billion following news that the US plans to impose tariffs on US$60 billion worth of Chinese imports. All the major stock categories gained ground. In the electronics sector, shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, rose 3.08 percent to close at NT$251, mainly due to the strong performance of its American depositary receipts overnight. Meanwhile, iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) shares gained 1.11 percent to close at NT$91.2. Market analysts said that as concern over a potential trade war between China and the US is expected to ease, foreign capital began flowing back into the local market, pushing the main index higher. If the momentum continues, the market is expected to continue its upward trend in the short term, analysts said.
BANKING
Profits beat estimates
Two of China’s largest banks posted better-than-expected profit growth last year as a strengthening economy curbed soured loans and the government’s campaign to cut debt boosted their lending margins. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (中國工商銀行) yesterday reported a 3 percent increase in net income last year, while Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (中國農業銀行) on Monday posted a 5 percent gain. Both lenders beat analysts’ estimates. China’s top five banks, which control more than a third of the nation’s US$40 trillion in banking assets, are staging a comeback thanks to improvements in borrowers’ repayment ability and higher demand for loans. They are also benefiting from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) crackdown on excessive debt, which is forcing smaller banks to turn to big lenders to borrow money. Both banks’ nonperforming loan ratios dropped for the first time since 2013 and senior executives said that they expect the trend to continue.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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