Banks' shareholders meet
Several Taiwanese banks held shareholders meetings yesterday to finalize their distribution of cash dividends.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) agreed to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.5 per share to shareholders while Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) announced a cash dividend of NT$1 per share.
Also, Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) decided to give NT$0.65 in cash dividends per share and the Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工銀) NT$0.55 per share.
Meanwhile, EnTie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行) yesterday finalized its plan to cut its capital by NT$22 billion, or 55.26 percent, to total at NT$17.8 billion, after writing off NT$20.6 billion-worth bad loans for last year.
After raising NT$4 billion last year, Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) yesterday claimed that its capital adequacy ratio has risen to 9.44 percent in the third quarter.
Formosa to press on with plant
Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s biggest diversified industrial company, said accelerating inflation in Vietnam will not deter it from constructing a steel plant there next month.
Formosa is also considering building an oil refinery and ethylene plant in the country, chief executive officer William Wong (王文淵) said yesterday. He didn’t give details about the new projects being considered.
Vietnam is trying contain an inflation rate that’s at its highest level since at least 1992. Pacific Hospital Supply Co (太平洋醫材) and Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖) have postponed plans to invest in Vietnam, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported on Wednesday.
“We’ll be careful, while investment in Vietnam will continue,” Wong said after a shareholders’ meeting for unit Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠). “We remain confident.”
Taiwan files dispute against EU
Taiwan joined the US and Japan on Thursday in filing a WTO dispute claiming that the EU has failed to fulfill its commitment to eliminate tariffs on certain technology products.
The Taiwanese delegation to the WTO said it sent a consultation request to its EU counterpart, an action the US and Japan took on May 28.
The products in question are flat panel displays, set-top boxes with a communication function, “input or output units” and fax machines.
In its consultation request, Taiwan says that according to the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), these products should be duty-free, but the EU and member states still impose duty on them.
The EU, however, maintains that certain products are taxed because they possess additional functions and are therefore not covered by the ITA.
Wang gets Acer thumbs-up
Acer Inc’s annual shareholders meeting approved a proposal yesterday to have the company’s chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) also serve as the chief executive officer of the Acer Group, the Chinese-language business news Web site cnYes.com reported.
Wang will continue his chairmanship at the world’s third-largest PC vendor, the report said.
Shareholders also agreed in the meeting to appoint the company’s president Gianfranco Lanci as the chief executive officer for his contribution to the firm. Lanci will still remain the company’s president, the report said.
NT dollar unchanged
The NT dollar remained unchanged against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, closing at NT$30.451.
A total of US$1.001 billion changed hands during the day’s trading.
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
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
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
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
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