STEELMAKERS
CSC profit, shipments drop
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday said consolidated pre-tax profits plunged 27 percent to NT$2.06 billion (US$65.6 million) last month from NT$2.86 billion in January. Revenue shrank 20 percent to NT$23.58 billion last month, compared with NT$29.4 billion in January. Shipments of carbon steel tumbled about 20 percent sequentially to 644,118 tonnes last month, compared with 824,916 tonnes in January.
CHIPMAKERS
Faraday to boost returns
Faraday Technology Corp (智原), a fabless chip designing service and silicon patent provider, yesterday said its board approved a plan to cancel 40 percent of its capital shares in a bid to boost shareholders’ return on equity. After canceling 166 million shares, Faraday will have 248.5 million capital shares, according to a statement the company submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company plans to pay back NT$4 per share to shareholders. The firm is scheduled to hold an annual shareholder’s meeting on June 9 to approve the capital reduction plan.
INVESTMENT
Merrill Lynch hosts forum
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is to host an investors’ conference at the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Taipei beginning today that will discuss the next growth drivers in the dynamic technology industry. The “Taiwan, Technology & Beyond Conference — Catch A Wave,” scheduled to run from today to Thursday, is in its 18th year and is expected to bring together senior executives from about 130 domestic and foreign companies representing both high-tech and non-high-tech sectors. Among the scheduled speakers are executives from Taiwan-listed technology companies, such as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), contract laptop maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), touchpanel maker TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), DRAM memory chipmaker Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) and wireless carrier Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), according to Merrill Lynch. The three-day conference is set to open today with a keynote speech by Merrill Lynch semiconductor analyst Daniel Heyler, who will discuss “the next growth wave in mobile.”
MARKETS
TAIEX falls on electronics
The TAIEX closed lower yesterday as foreign institutional investors continued to pull their funds out of large-cap electronics heavyweights. The TAIEX fell 66.44 points, or 0.69 percent, to close at the day’s low of 9,512.91 after reaching a high of 9,590.76. Turnover was NT$81.07 billion. The market opened higher following early gains in other Asian markets, but it fell into negative territory shortly before 9:30am and continued falling the rest of the session on weakness in the electronics sector. The bellwether electronics sub-index fell 1.06 percent, the biggest decline posted by any sector yesterday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the heaviest weighted stock in the market, fell 2.01 percent to close at NT$146.0, while IC design firm MediaTek Inc (聯發科) tumbled 3.57 percent to close at NT$432.0. Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$9.04 billion in shares, much of it coming in the electronics sector. They were net sellers of nearly 10.7 million TSMC shares and nearly 7.9 million MediaTek shares during the session, stock exchange data showed.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
RSS