ENERGY
Vote to affect a single plant
Only Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County can be considered for delayed decommissioning, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said yesterday. The plant is the only facility that can apply for a stay of decommissioning, as it has more than five years before its originally scheduled decommissioning, Tseng said, adding that the application deadline for the other two nuclear power plants has lapsed. Tseng’s comments came after voters passed a referendum that paves the way for the use of nuclear power beyond 2025. State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is ready to carry out the stay of decommissioning for Ma-anshan, once a decision is made by the government, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times yesterday, adding that the technical aspects of the process would not pose as a major concern. Ma-anshan has enough capacity on site to safely store spent nuclear fuel rods to sustain operations through 2025, they said. The facility is also equipped with an advanced boiling-water reactor that produces only 10 percent as much spent fuel rods as older technologies, the spokesperson said.
CEMENT
Taiwan Cement shares fall
Shares in Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥) yesterday fell 5.23 percent to NT$33 as the company completed the issuance of US$400 million in convertible bonds, the largest by any Asian cement company and the biggest in the past year by any Taiwanese company. The bonds are listed on the Singapore Exchange. They are linked to the New Taiwan dollar and have a conversion price of NT$41, representing a 16 percent premium over the stock’s NT$35.35 closing price on Monday. Taiwan Cement has raised about US$950 million, including US$549 million in global depositary receipts that the company issued in July.
ELECTRONICS
Containerized center set up
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), yesterday announced that it shipped a containerized data center from the company’s manufacturing base in Wujiang, China, and installed it for the Singapore-based Campana Group in just 50 days. The energy-efficient, 200 kilowatt data center was set up in Yangon, Myanmar, as part of the Singapore-Myanmar International Submarine Cable Project, which targets Southeast Asia’s growing demand for online activities and digital life. Delta said that its containerized solution is highly scalable and can be deployed rapidly, as opposed to the two-year construction time required for traditional data centers. Over the past few years, containerized solutions have become the best choice for data centers used in edge computing and disaster recovery, Delta said.
DIGITAL PAYMENT
Jkos toasts politician’s loss
Jkos Network Co Ltd (街口網絡) founder and chief operating officer Kevin Hu (胡亦嘉) yesterday denied all wrongdoing over a spat with former Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilor Wang Wei-chung (王威中), who in March had cast doubt over the payment app’s security. Jkos celebrated Wang’s defeat in Saturday’s nine-in-one elections by offering its users a 20 percent cash rebate limited to NT$100 on a first-time purchase yesterday. Regarding Wang’s threat to take legal action against alleged election manipulation, Hu said that he did nothing wrong and that the cash rebate took place after the ballots were counted. Hu promised that Jkos would continue to celebrate any defeats Wang has in the future.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) employee bonuses are likely to grow more than 30 percent this year, in line with the past few years as the company’s profits continue to set new records, an anonymous source cited TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as saying yesterday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is committed to taking care of its workers, the source said, citing Wei’s meeting with employees yesterday morning. Wei also expressed gratitude to employees for their contribution to the company’s improving bottom line, the source added. Since 2023, TSMC’s employee bonuses have grown at an annual rate of
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