SRI LANKA
Rates hit record high
Interest rates yesterday hit their highest level in two decades despite a devastating economic crisis, as the central bank sought to dampen record inflation of 54.6 percent. Inflation touched a year-on-year record last month, with food prices rising by 80.1 percent, prompting the central bank to raise rates to address the rise in prices. The central bank increased its standing lending facility rate by 100 basis points to 15.50 percent, while the standing deposit facility rate was similarly raised to 14.50 percent, the highest since August, 2001.
INDIA
Central bank spurs cash inflow
The central bank mounted a fresh defense of the beleaguered rupee, announcing a raft of measures to boost foreign-exchange inflows. The steps include doubling corporate overseas borrowing limits to US$1.5 billion per financial year, temporarily removing interest-rate ceilings for banks to attract deposits from non-residents, and liberalizing rules for foreigners to invest in local-currency bonds, the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement on Wednesday. The new rules should “further diversify and expand the sources of forex funding so as to mitigate volatility and dampen global spillovers,” it said
EUROPEAN UNION
Price fixing alleged in raids
Antitrust investigators on Wednesday raided the offices of German online app Delivery Hero, a company spokesman said, over suspicions the company was part of a price-fixing cartel. Delivery Hero said it “is committed to cooperating fully with the commission.” The European Commission said raids had taken place against companies in two EU countries, and the companies concerned were suspected of breaking an EU antitrust law that bans cartels. Such inspections did not mean that the companies were guilty of anti-competitive behavior “nor does it prejudge the outcome of the investigation itself,” the commission said.
PRIVATE EQUITY
Carlyle cuts China exposure
Carlyle Group Inc’s new US$8.5 billion Asia fund aims to limit its Chinese exposure to about half of previous funds, driven by investors’ concerns regarding rising geopolitical risks and regulatory uncertainty in Beijing, people familiar with the matter said. The Washington-based asset manager is telling investors that the targeted China exposure for its sixth Asia fund will be about 20 percent to 40 percent, compared with 40 percent to 50 percent on average for predecessor funds, they said. The latest fund is Carlyle’s biggest in Asia, they said.
BATTERIES
W-Scope eyes higher revenue
W-Scope Chungju Plant Co, the South Korean battery-parts maker seeking to raise as much as 1 trillion won (US$769 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) predicts operating margins greater than 30 percent by 2025 given robust demand for electric vehicles, CEO Choi Won-kun said. The company also expects revenue should increase about 40 percent to US$200 million this year, Choi said in an interview earlier this week. “We’re all set for production plans for the next five years and we’re in talks with potential partners for new orders,” Choi said. W-Scope Chungju Plant, which makes the separators used in electric-vehicle batteries, plans to use cash from the IPO to build a new plant in Hungary, he said.
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
EXPORT GROWTH: The AI boom has shortened chip cycles to just one year, putting pressure on chipmakers to accelerate development and expand packaging capacity Developing a localized supply chain for advanced packaging equipment is critical for keeping pace with customers’ increasingly shrinking time-to-market cycles for new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday. Spurred on by the AI revolution, customers are accelerating product upgrades to nearly every year, compared with the two to three-year development cadence in the past, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC Global Summit organized by SEMI in Taipei. These shortened cycles put heavy pressure on chipmakers, as the entire process — from chip design to mass
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