Share prices drop
The TAIEX closed down 33.43 points, or 0.43 percent, at 7,721.66 yesterday. Turnover totaled NT$87.58 billion (US$3.02 billion).
3G for Apple Inc’s latest iPads
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday spearheaded the selling of Apple Inc’s latest tablets, the iPad Mini and iPad 4, with 3G. The devices were available in their retail stores from yesterday evening.
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) said it would start selling these Apple products throughout its 349 outlets from today.
Lite-On revenue still rising
Local electronic component maker Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) again posted record high monthly revenue yesterday, backed by resilient demand for high-end servers supporting cloud computing technology, networking equipment, and mobile devices.
Revenue rose 3 percent month on month to NT$10.97 billion last month, from November’s NT$10.68 billion, an 18 percent annual expansion.
Last quarter, Lite-On’s revenue grew 2 percent sequentially, or 10 percent annually, to NT$32.06 billion. For the whole of last year, revenue increased 2 percent to NT$121.45 billion.
Bank’s expansion approved
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday approved plans by Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank (上海商業儲蓄銀行) to set up a representative office in Cambodia, as it aims to expand in Southeast Asia. Currently, Shanghai Bank owns a branch in Hong Kong and Vietnam, and a representative office in Thailand.
State-run Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) have set up branches in Cambodia, while Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) and Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) are applying to establish branches there.
Investment expansion
Taiwan said it would seek to lure NT$150 billion in return investment this year from Taiwanese companies with overseas operations, as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) strives to bolster economic growth.
The country will provide benefits such as lower tariffs on equipment imports and higher quotas for hiring foreign workers, Woody Duh (杜紫軍), deputy minister at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said in Taipei today.
The government aims to spur an economy that the International Monetary Fund estimated expanded at its weakest pace since the 2009 global recession. Ma said on Monday that Taiwan would try to liberalize its business environment and deepen international trade links.
Yuan transactions cleared
The China-based People’s Bank of China (中國人民銀行) is to sign a pact with the Bank of China’s Taipei branch to clear Chinese yuan transactions in Taiwan. Taiwanese will then be able to invest in yuan-denominated assets, the central bank said yesterday.
Once the clearing pact is signed between the Chinese banks, yuan-denominated operations such as yuan deposits, loans and remittances, can begin within a month, central bank officials said.
Central bank officials said they would seek better treatment for Taiwan or at least treatment at a comparable level to Hong Kong.
NT falls against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar dropped NT$0.002 versus the US dollar to close at NT$29.127.
Turnover totaled about US$681 million during the trading session.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by