ENERGY
Rebates on new appliances
Until June 2021, consumers buying new energy-saving home appliances will be eligible for an excise tax rebate of up to NT$2,000 per item, the Ministry of Finance said on Saturday. The tax incentive is limited to purchases of new refrigerators, air conditioners, heaters and dehumidifiers that meet the Bureau of Energy’s Level 1 or 2 energy-efficiency standards. The appliances must be for personal use, not resale, the ministry said.
WIND POWER
Industry body inaugurated
The development of offshore wind power could create investment of NT$1 trillion (US$31.7 billion) and 20,000 job opportunities in Taiwan, Minister Without Portfolio Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said at the inauguration of the Taiwan Offshore Wind Industry Association on Thursday. The government has set a goal of reaching 5.5 gigawatts of installed capacity by 2025, which could result in 19.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, Kung said. The government also expects offshore wind power development to help cut carbon emissions by 10 million tonnes per year by 2025.
ELECTRONICS
Nvidia to cultivate AI talent
Nvidia Corp is to train more than 5,000 artificial intelligence (AI) and deep-learning workers within three years in Taiwan in collaboration with the Industrial Development Bureau, the company said at an AI summit on Wednesday. Nvidia has already collaborated with Taiwanese companies on various AI-related applications for flaw detection, predictive maintenance, smart production and autonomous machine control. Nvidia global vice president and Taiwan general manager Eunice Chiu (邱麗孟) said AI solutions would help transform and upgrade Taiwan’s manufacturing industry.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
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