Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/24/20202
By: Frances Huang

Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan closed moderately higher Monday after coming off a high as investors pocketed their earlier gains amid lingering concerns over escalating tensions between the United States and China, dealers said.

The bellwether electronics sector served as a driver to the upturn on the broader market despite late session selling to cap the gains, while non-tech stocks largely appeared mixed throughout the session, they said.

The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), or the Taiex, ended up 39.29 points, or 0.31 percent, at 12,647.13, after moving between 12,567.95 and 12,702.94, on turnover of NT$203.87 billion (US$6.93 billion).

"Today's gains were largely driven by the higher electronics sector, led by select Apple concepts stocks, in the wake of a new Nasdaq high," Ta Chan Securities analyst Jerry Chen said.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/22
By:  Central News Agency

The National Communications Commission (NCC) said Saturday that it has given approval for the sale of 20 5G-compatible phone models in Taiwan, nine of which have not yet been released on the market.

Since 5G services were launched in Taiwan on July 1, demand for monthly plans has remained low, with consumers deterred by factors such as high data prices, limited network coverage, and a narrow choice of phones that are expensive.

To date, only 11 5G-compatible phone models are available on the Taiwan market — seven made by Samsung, two by Oppo, and one each by Sony and LG.
Nine of them are priced between NT$20,000 (US$680) and NT$40,000, while two of the Samsung models cost NT$12,000 to NT$15,000.

In an interview with CNA on Saturday, an NCC official said consumers will soon have a broader range of options, as the NCC has now approved the sale of 20 5G phones, nine of which have not yet been released.Several industry insiders have also expressed confidence that 5G sales will pick up when new and more affordable phones become available in the second half of the year.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/24/2020
By: Frances Huang

Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) The Taiwan Stock Exchange's main index opened up 21.94 points at 12,629.78 Monday on turnover of NT$3.06 billion (US$104 million).    [SOURCE]

NOT OVER YET: The Ministry of Finance said it would again appeal the High Court’s ruling, drawing out a rights dispute that has gone through three courts since 2014

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 24, 2020
By: Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporter

Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) on Friday said it welcomed a Taiwan High Court ruling confirming that the company and the Ministry of Finance have a contractual relationship regarding management rights of state-run Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (CHB, 彰化銀行).

Friday’s ruling says that as long as Taishin Financial remains the largest shareholder of CHB, the ministry “should support and must not obstruct” Taishin Financial in securing four seats on the lender’s nine-member board and subsequent management rights.

While saying that justice has been served, Taishin Financial in a statement offered an olive branch to the ministry to end the dispute that has continued since 2014.

“This case has dragged on for nearly six years. It has been tried by different courts [the Taipei District Court, High Court and Supreme Court], and they have unanimously agreed that there is a continuing contractual relationship between Taishin Financial and the Ministry of Finance,” the company said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/22
By:  Central News Agency

Confidence in the outlook for the domestic economy weakened in August, due to a continued increase in the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide, according to Cathay Financial Holding Co.

Citing a survey it conducted in the first week of August, Cathay Financial said confidence in Taiwan's export-oriented economy has also been spooked by the growing trade tensions between the United States and China, which could affect global demand.

In the Aug. 1-7 survey, 41 percent of Cathay Financial clients said they expected the domestic economy to improve over the next six months, while 38.2 percent said it would deteriorate.

That translated into an optimism index of 1.9 for the domestic economy over the next six months, down from 13.1 in a similar poll in July, Cathay Financial said.
The optimism index for the current economic situation, however, rose to 2.9 in August from minus 18.2 in July, according to the company.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/22/2020
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Aug. 22 (CNA) Chinese yuan deposits held by banks in Taiwan fell to the lowest in six and a half years at the end of July, due to a drop in interest rates, according to the central bank.

Central bank data showed yuan deposits in domestic banks dropped to 240.99 billion yuan (US$34.83 billion) in July, down 184 million yuan from the previous month.

It was the lowest level since February 2014, when yuan deposits stood at 247.05 billion yuan, according to the data.

A continued decline in interest rates on the yuan made the currency less attractive to many investors, who moved their funds into other holdings, the central bank said.    [FULL  STORY]

Peta Pixel
Date:  Aug 21, 2020
By: DL Cade

COMMENT

IKEA’s catalog is almost iconic in the photo community. But if you were up in arms when they started replacing photos with realistic CGI, then you’re really not going to like this… IKEA Taiwan recently redid key pages in its 2021 catalog using in-game ‘photos’ from the latest Animal Crossing video game.

First spotted by The Verge, the fun little marketing stunt (seems to have worked…) was posted to the IKEA Taiwan Facebook Page, where the company shared images showing the original page from the catalog alongside a recreation done in Animal Crossing.    [FULL  STORY]

The amount of silicon used to make those processors is enough to cover 13 Manhattan city blocks

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/08/21
By: Eric Chang, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) passed an impressive milestone in July, producing its one-billionth, defect-free 7-nanometer chip.

According to a TSMC blog post, the company has manufactured 7 nm chips for over 100 products and dozens of different customers. The amount of silicon used to make those chips is enough to cover 13 Manhattan city blocks, and with more than 1 billion transistors per chip, that is over one quintillion (a billion billion) 7nm transistors.

The company pointed out that its 7 nm process was able to achieve “high-volume production faster than any other TSMC technology before.” TSMC was also the first to use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography in the commercial production of 7 nm chips, whereby the shorter wavelength of EUV light makes it easier to print nanometer-scale features on processors.

TSMC is the world’s largest semiconductor foundry and supplies some of the biggest global tech companies, like Apple and AMD. The Taiwanese companies 7 nm chips are not only in PCs, tablets, and smartphones, but in data centers, vehicles, and used to perform sophisticated training and inferencing for artificial intelligence.    [FULL  STORY]