Central bank deputy governor Hsu Yi-hsiung (徐義雄) told legislators yesterday that he believes the US dollar's recent appreciation against major currencies would be a short-term uptick.
"There's little reason to believe that the greenback would continue to climb given its current economic climate," Hsu told the legislature's Finance Committee, responding to lawmakers' concerns that market views of a weaker US dollar may be soon revised.
The New Taiwan dollar's recent depreciation against the greenback was, therefore, not only in line with the general weakness of Asian currencies, but also reflected the US dollar's appreciation, he said.
For example, the US dollar was trading at ?112.62 on the Tokyo foreign exchange market at 3pm yesterday, down ?0.70 from late Tuesday.
Hsu also dismissed worries that the NT dollar's depreciation has anything to do with a hurried outflow of overseas capital including the share-dumping by foreign investors.
With the TAIEX rebounding and the yen's appreciation, the NT dollar yesterday turned strong against the greenback, gaining NT$0.142 to close at NT$33.505 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
With a turnover of US$750 million yesterday, the unit was traded against the US dollar between NT$33.647 and NT$33.490 during the session.
Speculation that foreign investors are abandoning the local stock market -- with NT$80 billion worth of Taiwanese shares having been sold in the past 10 days -- is believed to have caused the recent depreciation in the local currency.
Hsu said that the outward remittances of around US$1.5 billion by foreign investors recently is "relatively reasonable."
Hsu said that he had not noticed speculators trying to manipulate the local currency, but the central bank would step in to moderate the NT dollar's irrational fluctuation triggered by the movement of foreign capital if necessary..
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Mao-nan (
He also said that the central bank would closely monitor the currency's movement in order to maintain the nation's export competitiveness against other Asian trade competitors, including South Korea and Singapore.
Meanwhile, Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑), former vice chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, yesterday expressed his confidence in the TAIEX. He said the index may slowly rise since MSCI has decided to add three Taiwanese high-tech companies into its index list.
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
NVIDIA FACTOR: Shipments of AI servers powered by GB300 chips would undergo pilot runs this quarter, with small shipments possibly starting next quarter, it said Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which supplies artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp chips, yesterday said that AI servers are on track to account for 70 percent of its total server revenue this year, thanks to improved yield rates and a better learning curve for Nvidia’s GB300 chip-based servers. AI servers accounted for more than 60 percent of its total server revenue in the first half of this year, Quanta chief financial officer Elton Yang (楊俊烈) told an online conference. The company’s latest production learning curve of the AI servers powered by Nvidia’s GB200 chips has improved after overcoming key component
UNPRECEDENTED DEAL: The arrangement which also includes AMD risks invalidating the national security rationale for US export controls, an expert said Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) have agreed to pay 15 percent of their revenue from Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chip sales to the US government in a deal to secure export licenses, an unusual arrangement that might unnerve both US companies and Beijing. Nvidia plans to share 15 percent of the revenue from sales of its H20 AI accelerator in China, a person familiar with the matter said. AMD is to deliver the same share from MI308 revenue, the person added, asking for anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The arrangement reflects US President Donald Trump’s consistent effort to engineer