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.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
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