STEEL
ITC says imports hurt US
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) on Thursday made a preliminary determination that imports of corrosion-resistant steel from Taiwan, China, India, Italy and South Korea have injured the US steel industry, the US-based Steel Dynamics Inc said in a statement welcoming the commission’s action. US imports of such sheet steel from the five nations has increased 85 percent since 2012 — from 1.5 million tonnes to 2.75 million tonnes last year, the company said. Imports from the five rose more than 30 percent in the first quarter of this year to 800,000 tonnes from 600,000 tonnes last year, it added. Six US steelmakers — including AK Steel Corp, ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor Corp and United States Steel Corp — filed a trade complaint with the ITC and US Department of Commerce on June 3. The department is expected to make preliminary determinations in the countervailing duty cases by Aug. 27 and in the anti-dumping cases by Nov. 10, although both dates may be extended, Steel Dynamics’ statement said.
AGRICULTURE
Mango exports rise 107%
Exports of Taiwanese mangoes more than doubled in the first half of this year, a senior agriculture official said yesterday. A total of 3,607 tonnes of mangoes were exported in the first six months, 107 percent more than the same period of last year, Agriculture and Food Agency Deputy Director Lin Li-fang (林麗芳) said. The value of those exports reached NT$400 million (US$12.77 million), an increase of 135 percent from a year ago, Lin said. The agency forecast that the total volume of mango exports this year could top 10,000 tonnes, compared with more than 6,000 tonnes last year. Most of the 12,000 hectares used for mango cultivation are in Pingtung County, Kaohsiung and Tainan. The Irwin mango, a variety imported from Florida in the 1950s, is the main export product, and the 10 export markets for Taiwanese mangoes include China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, with those countries accounting for more than 90 percent of the exports, the agency said.
FINANCE
Yuanta to redeem shares
Yuanta Securities Corp (元大證券) is to book NT$500 million in recovered investments by redeeming its holdings of Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) A-type preferred shares, according a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. The announcement came after several financial firms on Wednesday rejected a proposal to convert their preferred THSRC shares into common shares. The railway company is using the share conversion scheme to help revitalize its ailing finances, but opponents say it would halve the value of their THSRC shares.
FOOTWEAR
Feng Tay shares up 3.41%
Shares in shoemaker Feng Tay Enterprise Co (豐泰鞋業) yesterday rose 3.41 percent after the company’s latest quarterly results beat market expectations. Net income expanded 58 percent year-on-year to NT$976 million in the second quarter, boosting total earnings for the first half of the year 44.11 percent to NT$1.81 billion from the same period last year. Earnings per share were NT$3.04 in the first half, compared with NT$2.17 a year earlier, the company said in a filing to the stock exchange. Feng Tay said rising orders from Nike Inc and its capacity expansion this year would help drive revenue and earnings growth this year. Shares of Feng Tay closed at NT$167 yesterday in Taipei trading, rising 4.53 percent this week.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day