■ COMPUTERS
Wistron to invest in Vietnam
Hsinchu-based Wistron Corp (緯創) plans to invest US$10 million to build a factory in Vietnam for expansion. Wistron's board approved the Vietnam investment via its offshore unit, VNCap, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange late on Friday, without elaborating. Wistron's shipments could reach 19 million units this year, up from about 11 million to 12 million units last year and 9 million in 2006, the Chinese-language Commercial Times newspaper said yesterday, without citing a source. Wistron is the world's third-largest contract manufacturer of notebook computers behind Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦).
■ PETROLEUM
Caracas reroutes oil to China
Venezuela is rerouting oil to China that had previously been sent to a US refinery co-owned by its state oil company and Exxon Mobil Corp, Venezuela's oil minister said on Friday. Rafael Ramirez said Exxon has stopped ordering crude for a refinery in the New Orleans suburb of Chalmette as legal wrangling between the Irving, Texas-based company and Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) continues. PDVSA and Exxon are locked in a fierce legal battle over compensation for the nationalization of a jointly owned heavy oil project in Venezuela's Orinoco basin last year.
■ COMPUTERS
Neo, Intel launch mini laptop
Philippine PC manufacturer Neo and multinational computer processor maker Intel have jointly launched a new 16,999 peso (US$406) mini laptop, spokesmen said yesterday. The Neo Explore is a "ruggedized and shock-proof" laptop with a keyboard that will not be damaged by spillages of liquids, Neo spokeswoman Mariel Que said. It weighs 0.66kg and is the size of a schoolchild's lunchbox, but will have the memory capacity and usual features of a standard basic laptop. Though the Explore is primarily designed for primary school children here, it can also be used by first-time PC users for word-processing and Internet access, Intel Philippines country manager Ricky Banaag said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Jaguar deal under review
The European Commission said on Friday it would rule on Tata Motors' takeover of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford by the end of next month after the Indian company reported the deal to Europe's top antitrust watchdog. Tata said in the notification that the deal did not represent a "significant impediment to effective competition" because the companies' "combined market shares are small." Tata Motors said on Wednesday it was buying the two British luxury icons Jaguar and Land Rover from ailing US carmaker Ford for US$2.3 billion.
■ BANKING
BayernLB losses may mount
Losses at Bavarian regional bank BayernLB stemming from the collapse of the US market for high-risk mortgages may be far higher than forecast, the state's premier said on Friday. Bavarian leader Guenther Beckstein told the daily Nordbayerischer Kurier in an interview yesterday that the writedowns could reach 4 billion euros (US$6.3 billion). Last month the bank estimated that losses could reach 1.9 billion euros. A BayernLB spokesman declined to comment ahead of the bank's annual press conference on Thursday. The heavy losses prompted chief executive Werner Schmidt to resign last month.
REGIONAL COMPETITION: Over the past few years the Philippines has lost ground to neighbors such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, a Philippine official said The Philippines is trying to enlist Taiwanese chip giants to expand in semiconductors, a bid to catch up with its neighbors who are emerging as significant suppliers in the industry. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) are among companies the Philippines is reaching out to as it seeks equipment and expertise to build out chip fabrication operations, said Dan Lachica, head of the Southeast Asian country’s main electronics industry group, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc (SEIPI). The association is working with Philippine officials in Taiwan to talk with potential
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) halted shipments to a customer this month after its semiconductors were sent to China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為), potentially breaching US sanctions, a government official said. The US slapped sanctions on Huawei in 2019, and expanded them the following year, over fears its technology could be used for Beijing’s espionage operations. The restrictions prevent TSMC from selling semiconductors to Huawei. However, TSMC discovered on Oct. 11 that chips made for a “specific customer” had ended up with the Chinese company, a Taiwanese official with knowledge of the incident said on the condition of anonymity. TSMC “immediately activated
Nvidia Corp is set to unveil investment plans for Thailand, joining Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp, as Southeast Asia becomes a hot spot for building artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and manufacturing the components that power them. The US chip designing firm would announce investments during chief executive officer Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) trip to Bangkok in December, Thai Minister of Commerce Pichai Naripthaphan said on Monday. He declined to give details on the investment or how much the company would bring into Thailand. The investment by Nvidia could lead to more funding “with related clusters following suit,” Pichai said. Clinching
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98