STEELMAKERS
China Steel to expand stake
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday said its board approved a plan to purchase a NT$939 million (US$29.9 million) stake in a Vietnamese steelmaking unit of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團). After the transaction, CSC will hold a 25 percent stake in Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp (台塑河靜鋼鐵興業), up from 5 percent, the company said in a statement. The investment is part of CSC’s broader overseas expansion plan, the company said. The deal is expected to deepen the company’s partnership with Formosa and would also pave the way for future collaboration in expanding to other Asian countries, including India and Southeast Asian nations, it said. The board also approved plans to invest an additional NT$869 million in Taiwan Rolling Stock Co Ltd (台灣車輛股份有限公司) and Tang Eng Iron Works Co (唐榮鐵工廠).
TELECOMS
Taiwan Star eyes coverage
Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星), a telecoms arm of Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團), said it plans to boost investment on network deployment with an aim to increase its 4G coverage to 98 percent by the end of this year, while indoor coverage is expected to increase to 80 percent. At the end of last year, the carrier’s 4G coverage had reached 96 percent, Taiwan Star said in a statement on Thursday. The company said new subscribers rose by 20 percent last month after jumping 45 percent in December last year.
PC MAKERS
Sales drop across industry
Following the peak holiday season in December last year, contract computer makers Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), Compal Electronics Co (仁寶電腦) and Inventec Corp (英業達) all reported monthly declines in sales for last month. Quanta’s revenue dropped 21.07 percent monthly to NT$70.12 billion last month. Compal sales declined 17.11 percent monthly to NT$68.73 billion last month, though the month’s sales jumped 28.54 percent from a year earlier. For last month’s sales, Inventec dropped 18.67 percent to NT$29.87 billion from a month earlier. The figure was a 29.5 percent decline from the previous year.
PC MAKERS
Pegatron income improves
Contract notebook computer maker Pegatron Corp (和碩) reported 3.27 percent monthly growth in income to NT$118.04 billion for last month. Pegatron’s sales for last month also jumped 28.98 percent from a year earlier, according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
TRANSPORTATION
Union seeks Uber informants
The Taipei taxi drivers’ union yesterday said it is offering a reward of NT$500 to people who provide firm evidence that US-based ridesharing service Uber is still operating in the nation, in violation of the law. The union said it worked with other organizations to raise NT$500,000, which would be split among the first 1,000 people who present pictures or video footage that prove Uber is still running a transportation service in Taiwan. The offer lasts until the end of next month, the association said. To obtain the reward, a person would have to report an incident to a motor vehicle office, providing a picture or video of a Uber car’s license plate, a screenshot of a confirmed dispatch order on the Uber app, a bill for the transaction and a confirmation slip from the motor vehicle office after filing the report.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS