MACROECONOMICS
GDP forecast update
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) is likely to cut Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to around 2.68 percent, following a disappointing 0.64 percent annual growth for the second quarter, sources said yesterday. The expected downgrade will reflect weakening global demand at a time when several major economies, including China, show signs of a slowdown, the sources said. Under such unfavorable circumstances, the DGBAS could cut its forecast from an estimate of a 3.28 percent increase the agency made in May. The agency is scheduled to update its GDP growth forecast today.
STOCK MARKET
UBS cuts year-end target
UBS Securities Ltd has lowered its year-end TAIEX target forecast to 8,550 points from 9,200, its fourth cut in over two months. The benchmark index closed up 28.36 points, or 0.34 percent, at 8,311.74 yesterday.
“We believe one of the key drags on the market is a lack of fundamental support. In particular, weakness in end-demand from emerging markets, including China, continues to serve as a major headwind for Taiwan tech,” William Dong (董成康), equities and research head of UBS Securities’ Taipei branch, wrote in a client note.
“For non-tech sectors, including bicycles, tires and materials, slow conditions in China continue to be a challenge,” he said.
COMPUTERS
Wistron drops Q2 margin
Contract notebook computer maker Wistron Corp (緯創) yesterday reported a worse-than-expected operating margin of 0.013 percent for the second quarter, down from 0.54 percent in the first quarter, citing a scale back of operations capacity utilization. “The decreased margin was primarily due to continued model transition in smart devices, a cutback in operations and capacity utilization, weak PC momentum and a one-time employee bonus expense of NT$350 million (US$10.8 million) that was booked in the second quarter,” Wistron said in a statement. In the second quarter, the company’s operating income was NT$19 million, down from NT$817 million in the previous quarter.
REAL ESTATE
Taipei price comparison
Housing prices in Taipei have increased more than fivefold over the past 27 years, according to a report released by the Chinese-language MyHousing magazine. To purchase a 150m2 apartment, a double-income family would have to spend the entire salary of both partners for 45 years, the report said. According to the report, the average monthly salary in Taiwan in May this year was NT$37,489, an increase of 18.3 percent over the average NT$31,690 in 1988. However, housing prices in Taipei today are more than five times higher than those of 1988, it said.
TEXTILES
Makalot sets income record
Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽), a textile supplier for global apparel retailers such as Zara, yesterday said pretax income for the first seven months of the year rose 29.97 percent year-on-year to NT$1.55 billion, or NT$7.8 per share, the highest in the company’s history. Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧) forecast that Makalot would see an even stronger second half boost to its annual net income, growing 27.98 percent to NT$2.18 billion from last year, with revenue rising 13.57 percent to NT$23.72 billion, thanks to expanded capacity and increasing orders.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”