Powerchip sales rebound
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), the nation’s No. 2 computer memory-chip maker, yesterday said sales for last month rebounded almost 80 percent on recovering demand for its chips.
Powerchip’s sales for last month rose to NT$2.64 billion (US$80.4 million), up 79 percent from NT$1.48 billion in July. That represents an annual decline of about 48 percent as prices plunged on oversupply and sluggish demand.
Powerchip spokesman Eric Tang (譚仲民) said the company was increasing output to cope with a gradual recovery in PC sales.
Meanwhile, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s top computer memory-chip manufacturer, said on Tuesday it planned to raise prices for mainstream DDR2 chips by 10 percent in October from September.
TAIEX run predicted for Q4
Taiwanese stocks are “positioned for a fourth-quarter run” as investors focus on a recovery in demand and a proposed tax on overseas earnings encourages citizens to repatriate funds, adding to liquidity, Deutsche Bank AG said.
Almost NT$100 billion of “retail money may get reallocated from offshore funds to onshore funds that are exposed to the TAIEX,” Deutsche Bank analyst Julian Wang wrote in a report yesterday.
NT$213 billion was withdrawn from time deposit accounts in the first half of the year and “most of it found its way into the equity market,” he said.
CPC inviting bids for bonds
State-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油), is inviting bids for NT$9 billion in bonds to help pay for investment.
The company plans to sell NT$5 billion in five-year notes, NT$2 billion in seven-year debt and NT$2 billion in 10-year securities, with the option to increase the total amount by as much as 30 percent, CPC vice president Lin Maw-wen (林茂文) said yesterday.
“We will use the money on investment,” Lin said.
The planned sale will be the refiner’s only bond issuance this year, he said.
CPC expects to spend NT$43.4 billion on fixed assets next year, according to the government’s draft budget for next year.
Projects include upgrades on refineries, construction of a petrochemical plant and development of a gas field off Taiwan, Lin said.
CPC and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), Taiwan’s only oil refiners, also have units that process naphtha, an oil product, into ethylene for making plastics and fibers.
NT dollar pares strong gain
The New Taiwan dollar weakened yesterday, paring its biggest daily gain in a month, on speculation declines in global stocks will prompt overseas investors to trim holdings of emerging-market assets. Bonds were little changed.
The NT dollar dropped last month on concern the central bank will cap appreciation to support exports, which have slumped for 11 straight months. The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index of regional shares slipped 1.5 percent today, the most in two weeks, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 2.2 percent yesterday.
The Taiwanese currency is “on the weaker side, in line with other Asian currencies,” said Suan Teck Kin, an economist in Singapore at United Overseas Bank Ltd. “The situation in terms of recovery is not yet entrenched.”
The currency fell 0.2 percent to NT$32.918 versus the greenback as of the 4pm close, according to Taipei Forex Inc. It rose 0.2 percent on Thursday, the most since Aug. 4.
Indonesia’s rupiah, the Philippine peso and Malaysia’s ringgit also weakened.
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