ENERGY
Vote to affect a single plant
Only Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County can be considered for delayed decommissioning, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said yesterday. The plant is the only facility that can apply for a stay of decommissioning, as it has more than five years before its originally scheduled decommissioning, Tseng said, adding that the application deadline for the other two nuclear power plants has lapsed. Tseng’s comments came after voters passed a referendum that paves the way for the use of nuclear power beyond 2025. State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is ready to carry out the stay of decommissioning for Ma-anshan, once a decision is made by the government, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times yesterday, adding that the technical aspects of the process would not pose as a major concern. Ma-anshan has enough capacity on site to safely store spent nuclear fuel rods to sustain operations through 2025, they said. The facility is also equipped with an advanced boiling-water reactor that produces only 10 percent as much spent fuel rods as older technologies, the spokesperson said.
CEMENT
Taiwan Cement shares fall
Shares in Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥) yesterday fell 5.23 percent to NT$33 as the company completed the issuance of US$400 million in convertible bonds, the largest by any Asian cement company and the biggest in the past year by any Taiwanese company. The bonds are listed on the Singapore Exchange. They are linked to the New Taiwan dollar and have a conversion price of NT$41, representing a 16 percent premium over the stock’s NT$35.35 closing price on Monday. Taiwan Cement has raised about US$950 million, including US$549 million in global depositary receipts that the company issued in July.
ELECTRONICS
Containerized center set up
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), yesterday announced that it shipped a containerized data center from the company’s manufacturing base in Wujiang, China, and installed it for the Singapore-based Campana Group in just 50 days. The energy-efficient, 200 kilowatt data center was set up in Yangon, Myanmar, as part of the Singapore-Myanmar International Submarine Cable Project, which targets Southeast Asia’s growing demand for online activities and digital life. Delta said that its containerized solution is highly scalable and can be deployed rapidly, as opposed to the two-year construction time required for traditional data centers. Over the past few years, containerized solutions have become the best choice for data centers used in edge computing and disaster recovery, Delta said.
DIGITAL PAYMENT
Jkos toasts politician’s loss
Jkos Network Co Ltd (街口網絡) founder and chief operating officer Kevin Hu (胡亦嘉) yesterday denied all wrongdoing over a spat with former Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilor Wang Wei-chung (王威中), who in March had cast doubt over the payment app’s security. Jkos celebrated Wang’s defeat in Saturday’s nine-in-one elections by offering its users a 20 percent cash rebate limited to NT$100 on a first-time purchase yesterday. Regarding Wang’s threat to take legal action against alleged election manipulation, Hu said that he did nothing wrong and that the cash rebate took place after the ballots were counted. Hu promised that Jkos would continue to celebrate any defeats Wang has in the future.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
RSS