CHIPMAKERS
Fujian Jinhua plans appeal
Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co (晉華集成電路), a Chinese chipmaker accused of stealing US trade secrets, plans to appeal a US block on technology exports that has frozen its business. The state-owned memorychip maker was charged in November last year along with Taiwanese partner United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) of conspiring to steal intellectual property from Micron Technology Inc. Both companies have since denied the allegations. Jinhua yesterday challenged US authorities to produce proof of the allegations.
UNITED STATES
Tax increase mooted
Senator Elizabeth Warren is proposing a so-called ultra-millionaire tax as she vies for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. According to two economists advising her presidential campaign on the plan, the tax would hit an estimated 75,000 of the wealthiest US households. The new tax plan released on Thursday by the Massachusetts Democrat would impose a new 2 percent fee annually on US households’ net worth greater than US$50 million. The overall new tax bill would rise to 3 percent for households on their net worth above US$1 billion under her plan.
UNITED STATES
Mnuchin touts trade progress
Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he thought that Washington and Beijing were “making a lot of progress” in trade talks, with currency issues also on the agenda. Mnuchin was not specific on the areas where he saw progress. “Currency has always been part of the discussions, it’s on a list, it’s one of the important issues, we’ve talked about it all the time, so it’ll continue to be on it,” Mnuchin said.
ARGENTINA
GDP shows large drop
The economy experienced its worst shrinkage during the tenure of President Mauricio Macri, as GDP dropped 7.5 percent in November last year compared with the same period in 2017, the state statistics bureau said on Thursday. It was the fourth month in a row that the economy dwindled following falls last year of 4.2 percent in October and 6.1 percent in September. For the period last year from January to November, the economy shrank 2.2 percent annually. The worst-hit sectors were commerce, industrial manufacturing and construction.
BANKING
Malayan closing researcher
Malayan Banking Bhd, Malaysia’s biggest lender, is closing its Hong Kong and China institutional equity research business to focus on Southeast Asian operations, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Kim Eng, the investment banking arm of Maybank, has cut seven to eight Hong Kong-based research positions, the people said. The changes were announced internally on Thursday, the people said. New European regulations requiring securities firms to separate research fees from trading commissions have shaken up the industry globally.
BEVERAGES
Starbucks slump ends
Starbucks Corp has put its recent sales slump behind it, beating analysts’ estimates in the key Americas and Asia-Pacific regions in the first quarter. Comparable sales rose 4 percent in the Americas. Same-store sales in China, where Starbucks has about 3,700 stores and is opening a new one roughly every 15 hours, gained 1 percent, marking the second straight quarter of growth after a rare decline last spring.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
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