Manufacturers post profits
Taiwanese manufacturing companies listed on the local bourse posted NT$278.8 billion (US$9.3 billion) in aggregate net profit in the second quarter, up 0.7 percentage points year-on-year, with a net profit margin of 5 percent, the highest level in 15 quarters, according to tallies compiled by the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The information and electronics sector recorded the highest net profit margin of 5.4 percent in the past quarter, up 1 percentage point from a year earlier.
The metal and electrical machinery segment posted the second highest net profit margin of 4.9 percent, down 0.3 percentage points year-on-year.
Meanwhile, listed manufacturers spent NT$276.6 billion in fixed capital investments in the second quarter, down 8 percent from a year earlier, with the information and electronics sector suffering annual declines, data showed.
Pomelos exported to China
An association of famers in Yunlin County exported 20,000kgs of pomelos to China on Friday, its first shipment of the fruit to the Chinese market.
The county, known for its agricultural products, has been seeking to expand into the Chinese market in recent years. A total of four containers of pomelos grown in the county’s Douliou City (斗六), known for their thin skin and juicy sweetness, were shipped to China.
Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) said the farmers’ group will continue to expand exports of the fruit overseas, adding that the county is also in talks with China to export mandarins, guavas, pitayas and other fruit to the Chinese market.
Winbond No. 4 DRAM supplier
Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) was ranked the world’s fourth-largest mobile DRAM supplier in the second quarter of this year, DRAMeXchange, a research unit of Taipei-based market information advisory firm FrendForce Corp, said in a research report last week.
Thanks to rising shipments of low and mid-capacity memory chips, Winbond posted US$34 million in sales in mobile DRAM shares for the April-to-June period, up 19.7 percent from a quarter earlier, the report said.
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) registered a 19 percent decline in its second-quarter mobile DRAM sales to US$31 million, making it the fifth-largest in the global rankings, DRAMeXchange said.
Samsung Electronics Co retained the title as the world’s largest mobile DRAM maker after it posted US$1.48 billion in sales in the past quarter, with a 45.4 percent market share, followed by SK Hynix Inc’s US$981 million in mobile DRAM sales (30 percent share) and Micron Technology Inc’s US$737 million in mobile DRAM sales (22.6 percent share), DRAMeXchange said.
Industrial production to grow
The nation’s industrial production is expected to have posted year-on-year growth last month as the global economy is on the road to recovery, boosting demand, in particular for electronics products, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday.
The ministry is scheduled to release the industrial production data for last month today.
In June, the industrial production index rose 8.63 percent from a year earlier to 107.93, with the sub-index in the manufacturing sector, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the entire index, up 8.93 percent.
In the first six months of this year, the industrial production index grew 4.48 percent from a year earlier.
Business to flash ‘green’ light
The government’s indicator of business activity is expected to flash a “green” light last month for the sixth consecutive month, signaling steady growth, analysts said yesterday.
The score of the nine monitoring indicators that comprise the composite index is expected to increase to 27 last month, one point above the June figure, due to strong exports.
The National Development Council is scheduled to release the latest composite index data on Wednesday.
The council uses a five-color system to gauge economic health, with red signaling overheating, yellow-red showing slight overheating, green indicating steady growth, yellow-blue signaling a slowdown and blue indicating recession.
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