■FINANCE
BOT to open in Shanghai
Bank of Taiwan (BOT, 臺灣銀行) plans to open a branch in Shanghai to offer banking services to Chinese clients. The move follows the bank’s establishment of yuan business in Hong Kong last year, BOT chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) told reporters yesterday in Taipei. With the rising number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, Taiwan will offer cash withdrawal services to Chinese Unionpay cards through automated teller machines from 18 banks in Taiwan by the end of the month, Chang said. Separately, Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控), the parent of BOT, does not have any share sale plan this year or next year, Chang said.
■ENERGY
Huaneng to start reactors
China Huaneng Group (華能集團), China’s biggest power company, plans to start operating high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors in Shandong Province in 2013, company vice president Huang Yongda (黃永達) told a climate conference in Beijing. China Huaneng and its partners, including Tsinghua University, are building the 200-megawatt trial nuclear plant using domestic technology, Huang said yesterday. The high-temperature gas-cooled reactors are “highly efficient and safe” and have support from the central government’s strategy to boost energy security, Huang said.
■TRANSPORTATION
Cruise ship visits Keelung
Keelung Harbor welcomed a liner from Star Cruises, the largest cruise line in the Asia-Pacific region, on Friday as it began its seasonal cruise service connecting Keelung and Japan’s Ryukyu Islands. The vessel, the SuperStar Libra, was scheduled to depart from Keelung at 10pm on Friday with 1,400 passengers on board for Japan’s Yonaguni Island. The four-day cruise will make port calls at several destinations in the Ryukyu Island chain, including Ishigaki Island. The SuperStar Libra, which has 740 cabins, is scheduled to operate 74 tours between Keelung and the Ryukyu Islands from now until Oct. 24.
■SPAIN
Economy up in first quarter
Spain’s economy took a tentative step out of recession by growing in the first three months of this year after six quarters of contraction, the Bank of Spain said on Friday. GDP rose 0.1 percent from January to March, but shrank 1.3 percent from a year earlier, the bank said. Spain’s large budget deficit remains a concern to the EU amid fears that the crisis over Greece’s large debt load could spread to other countries with large budget shortfalls, the bank said. Spain’s economy is four times the size of Greece’s, and last week Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s credit rating from AA+ to AA.
■SHIPPING
Oil tanker launched
Brazil on Friday launched the first of 10 domestically built oil tankers it will use to boost its trade in “black gold” and give new life to its shipbuilding industry. The 274m-long vessel, named the Jaoa Candido after a famous black Brazilian sailor, cost US$120 million and can transport 1 million barrels of crude — approximately half the daily output of Brazilian state oil company Petrobras. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva led the launching ceremony, telling the 3,700 shipyard workers that the tanker symbolized “a people’s high affirmation.” Brazil is sitting on 14 billion barrels of proven reserves of crude oil and expects to more than triple that with recent offshore finds, propelling it into the ranks of major oil exporters.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the