CTB is now `Mega'
CTB Financial Holding Co (交銀金控) officially changed its name to Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) yesterday and named former vice finance minister Lin Tzong-yeong (林宗勇) as president.
Besides providing financial services to corporations, Lin, currently chairman of the International Commercial Bank of China (中國商銀), yesterday vowed to increase Mega's market share in the credit card business to 3.75 percent in two years, up from the current 2.75 percent.
He also said that government-own shares in Mega, which has NT$110 billion in capital, have been diluted to below 20 percent although the government owns over 30 percent in shares of its parent bank -- Chiao Tung Bank (交銀) and 42 percent in shares of its subsidiary -- ICBC.
Chunk of oil giant to be sold
Taiwan plans this year to sell 55.23 percent of Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油), a stake it values at NT$136.4 billion (US$4 billion), as part of a government push to cut holdings in companies and to raise funds to plug a budget deficit.
The nation's biggest oil refiner plans to choose an adviser as early as next month, said Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠), vice chairman of the Commission of National Corporations at the Ministry of Economic Affairs during a year-end press conference yesterday.
Chinese Petroleum faces competition from Formosa Plastics Group (台塑), which started a refinery in 2000, ending Chinese Petroleum's monopoly on oil refining and fuel distribution.
Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) has said the government plans to make Chinese Petroleum's sale a priority because of the increasing rivalry in the oil products market and the need to help finance an estimated NT$237.4 billion budget deficit and to pay debt.
"Privatization will give the company more flexibility," said Donald Hou, who manages about NT$1 billion of stocks at Zurich Securities Investment Trust Co.
TSMC move to be reviewed
A supra-ministerial ad hoc group will convene a meeting next Wednesday to screen Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (台積電) plan to relocate an eight-inch wafer foundry to China, Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) said yesterday.
The ad hoc group -- established by the government exclusively to review the TSMC mainland-bound investment plan -- convened a pre-meeting discussion yesterday to sort things out prior to Wednesday's meeting.
Lin declined to speculate on whether the government will give TSMC the green light to head to the mainland during next Wednesday's meeting.
TSMC filed an application with the ministry's Investment Commission in September last year for permission to set up a factory in Shanghai to manufacture 8-inch wafers. The investment project calls for an outlay of US$371 million.
Sumitomo Metal to delay plan
Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd said its planned joint venture with China Steel Corp (中鋼) will be delayed until October from the planned start-up in spring.
The company did not give a reason for the delay.
The steel manufacturing joint venture will be formed in October this year, Sumitomo Metal spokesman Yogen Morihara said in an interview. Vice President of Finance Nobusato Suzuki in December said the venture will be set up as early as spring, or around May.
NT dollar moves higher
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.04 to close at NT$34.450 on the foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$645.5 million, compared with the previous day's US$557.5 million.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RESHAPING COMMERCE: Major industrialized economies accepted 15 percent duties on their products, while charges on items from Mexico, Canada and China are even bigger US President Donald Trump has unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosted the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his turbulent effort to reshape international commerce. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10 percent from the duties Trump imposed in April, easing the worst fears of investors after the president had previously said they could double. Yet his move to raise tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 percent threatens to inject fresh tensions into an already strained relationship, while nations such as Switzerland and New Zealand also saw increased
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