Stocks declined 1 percent to close at 8,680.11 yesterday in Taipei on concerns an increase in Chinese interest rates and cooling lending there could slow growth and demand in Taiwan's largest export destination.
"The slowdown in China's economy has been overdue," said Albert King, who manages US$10 million at Prophet Capital Inc in Taipei. "It'll have a direct impact on Taiwan's industrial companies as customers slow procurement."
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (
Nan Ya Plastics slid NT$5.20, or 5.9 percent, to NT$82.30, the largest slide since July 11.
Formosa Petrochemical fell NT$2.70, or 2.8 percent, to end at NT$92.80.
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), Taiwan's largest maker of flat-panel displays, rose NT$0.50, or 0.8 percent, to NT$63.10, while affiliate Qisda Corp (佳世達) added NT$0.70, or 1.8 percent, to NT$39 after the China Times said on Saturday that chairman Lee Kun-yao (李焜耀) predicted group sales would rise 30 percent next year with all units being profitable.
AUO hasn't made any forecasts for next year's sales, the company said in statement filed to the exchange during trading yesterday.
High Tech Computer Corp (宏達電), the world's largest maker of handsets using Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, rose NT$6, or 1 percent, to NT$628 after Merrill Lynch & Co added the firm to its Asia-Pacific Focus 1 list of top stocks to buy.
United Microelectronics Corp (
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their