The nation’s life insurers are likely to enjoy a stable earnings outlook this year amid an economic recovery, while their non-life counterparts will face diverging profitability over the long term, Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) said yesterday.
In a report released yesterday, Taiwan Ratings said life insurers’ substantial growth in their first-year premiums in the second half of last year pointed to a stable outlook over the next 12 months.
“Total first-year premiums grew 31 percent in the second half of 2009 compared with the first half, and we expect this will continue as market confidence restores,” Taiwan Ratings credit analyst Serene Hsieh (謝雅瑛) said in a statement.
“However, the government’s current low interest rate policy poses an obstacle for Taiwan’s life insurers [seeking] to realize growth in higher-margin traditional life insurance products,” Hsieh said.
For non-life insurers, Taiwan Ratings said price competition in a process of continued government deregulation would hold back major players’ total premium growth in the coming quarters.
The non-life sector entered its third stage of price deregulation in April last year, which has particularly had an impact on fire insurance premiums, credit analyst Eva Chou (周怡華) said in the report.
Also, the price competition pared down auto insurers’ potential premium income, despite a 28.3 percent increase in new vehicle sales last year thanks to the government cutting the NT$30,000 (US$950) commodity tax on new car purchases, she added.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
RSS