Lyu appointed to Mega job
The Ministry of Finance yesterday appointed former minister without portfolio Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) as the replacement for outgoing Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) chairman Cheng Shen-chih (鄭深池), a ministry statement said.
Lyu will double as chairman of the firm's subsidiary, Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀), the statement said.
The ministry also appointed Kaohsiung City Government Finance Bureau chief Ray Dawn (董瑞斌) to be Mega Financial's president and the chairman of subsidiary Mega Bills Finance Co (兆豐票券), the statement said.
Mega's incumbent president, Mckinney Tsai (蔡友才), will move to head Mega Investment Trust Corp (兆豐國際投信), it said.
The three nominations are expected to be approved at the firm's board meeting today.
Election result boosts shares
Taiwan's share prices closed 1.79 percent higher yesterday after a landslide victory by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in weekend parliamentary elections, dealers said.
The weighted index closed up 144.10 points at 8,173.41, having traded in a range of 8,260.88 to 8,097.68 on turnover of NT$168.10 billion (US$5.19 billion).
The tourism sector was up 6.92 percent, cement added 6.54 percent, financials rose 5.64 percent, construction was up 5.16 percent, textiles advanced 5.16 percent and transport rose 2.36 percent.
The electronics sector was down 0.79 percent.
The KMT's win raised hopes for better cross-strait economic ties, giving a boost to tourism-related stocks, dealers said.
Frank Lin, senior vice president at Fubon Securities (富邦證券), said investors were willing to build their investments after the KMT's unexpectedly strong showing.
"Investors are pinning their hopes on better cross-strait relations, no matter who wins the presidential election in March," Lin said.
He said that investors expected more Chinese visitors would be given permission to enter Taiwan.
If that materializes, Lin said "it will boost domestic demand not only for hotels, but also for other related services."
An increase in domestic demand would also help increase the value of assets, he added.
Gold hits record in Hong Kong
Hong Kong gold prices yesterday closed above US$900 for the first time as investors search for a safe haven amid fears of a US economic slowdown and stock market turmoil.
The precious metal closed at US$908 an ounce after passing the US$900 mark at around 2:30pm -- up US$15.50 an ounce from Friday's close of US$892.50, dealers said.
The price had broken through the US$900 mark during trading in New York on Friday following a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that was thought to indicate there could be more US interest rate cuts.
Formosa Plastics optimistic
Formosa Plastics Group (台塑), Taiwan's biggest diversified industrial company, expects revenue to rise to a record this year as it expands production.
Revenue will climb from last year's NT$2 trillion (US$62 billion), CEO William Wong (王文淵) told reporters in Mailiao Township (麥寮), Yunlin County, yesterday, without giving an estimate. Sales last year increased 20 percent from 2006, he said.
Formosa Plastics is expanding output to meet demand for its products from manufacturers that make goods including drinking bottles, toys and garments.
"The market was exceptionally good last year as sales in countries such as Vietnam, the US and China all rose quite a lot," Wong said.
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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