RETAIL
Eslite to exit Shenzhen
Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活), which operates the Eslite bookstore chain (誠品書局), plans to close its Shenzhen outlet in China at the end of the year, citing the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a change in international accounting rules, Eslite spokesman Wu Li-chieh (吳立傑) said in a statement on Friday. Eslite would record an asset impairment loss of NT$182 million (US$6.15 million) and an income loss of about NT$187 million, due to the early termination of its property lease, he said.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla opens Tainan station
Electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc on Friday announced the opening of a V3 Supercharger station in Tainan, less than a week after its first electric vehicle charging station opened in Taipei. The new station, which has eight charging stalls, is at the Tainan Art Museum’s Building 2 and is larger than the facility at National Taiwan University in Taipei, which opened on Monday last week, with only three charging stalls. The V3 Supercharger stations, first unveiled last year, charge vehicles at a peak rate of 250 kilowatts (kW), compared with the previous generation, which had a peak rate of 145kW, Tesla said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
WPG revises T3EX bid
Semiconductor components distributor WPG Holdings Co’s (大聯大投資控股) board of directors has agreed to raise its public tender offer price for shares of freight forwarder and logistics operator T3EX Global Holdings Corp (台驊國際投控) to NT$32 per common share, up from the NT$28 per share it first proposed on June 18, WPG said on Saturday. The new offer price represents a premium of 4.74 percent compared with T3EX’s closing price of NT$30.55 on Friday.
Tesla Inc temporarily halted some production at its auto assembly plant in California because of problems with its supply chain, but work has begun to resume, CEO Elon Musk told employees in an e-mail on Thursday. “We are experiencing some parts supply issues, so took the opportunity to bring Fremont production down for a few days to do equipment upgrades and maintenance,” Musk said in an all-staff message seen by Bloomberg. The factory was “back up and running as of yesterday,” and would rapidly ramp up to full production of Model 3 and Model Y cars “over the next several days,”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to post a 25 percent year-on-year increase in sales in the first quarter of this year to US$12.91 billion, up from US$10.31 billion a year earlier, as its production is at full capacity, market advisory firm TrendForce Corp said in a note last week. The increase would help TSMC cement its leadership in the industry by taking a 56 percent market share in the global pure wafer foundry business, TrendForce said. Its forecast was in line with TSMC’s estimate in January, which pointed to a range of US$12.7 billion to US$13 billion for the
MULTI-USE: The arrangement of seats in future vehicles would be different, allowing passengers to do everything they do at home, the CEO of the firm’s EV platform said Electric vehicles (EVs) developed on a Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) platform would be built like “a smartphone on a different platform,” Jack Cheng (鄭顯聰), chief executive officer of the Hon Hai-initiated MIH Open Platform Alliance, said on Saturday. It would be the ultimate goal to make vehicles built on the platform an extension of the driver’s home, he said during an online presentation. The alliance aims to provide resources to automakers and boost Taiwan’s EV development, with a vision to make an EV its owner’s “second home,” Cheng said. “Whatever they can do in their home, they will be able
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was on Thursday set to sell local currency bonds, as it prepared for a spending blitz amid a global chip shortage. The world’s largest contract chipmaker planned to price about NT$16 billion (US$565.25 million) of notes in three parts in an auction, though the actual issuance size might change. The manufacturer would have to contend with a recent rise in rates globally that has sent many corporate bond yields up from record lows in the past few weeks. The debt offering comes at a promising time for the semiconductor industry as the world scrambles its way
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