PHARMACEUTICALS
Commission approves funds
The Investment Commission yesterday approved China’s Dongbao Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (通化東寶) to invest NT$1.14 billion (US$34.81 million) in Taiwan’s Bionime Corp (華廣生技). The commission said it is the first time the Chinese company has invested in the Taiwanese firm, adding that the money would mainly be spent on research and development of blood-sugar testing devices.
STOCK MARKET
Investors cut holdings
Taiwanese suppliers to Apple Inc, in particular shares of smartphone camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光), yesterday came under selling pressure as investors preferred to cut their holdings ahead of results from the Black Friday shopping frenzy in the US, dealers said. Largan, the most expensive stock in the local market, fell 9.21 percent to close at NT$2,465, reflecting concerns over slowing sales growth after the company reported only a 6 percent year-on-year increase in consolidated sales for last month. Largan shares have been affected by a move by a US brokerage to significantly cut its target price for the stock from NT$3,600 to NT$2,100, saying that Apple has shifted some of its orders from the Taiwanese firm to a Japanese rival.
STOCK MARKET
FSC urges activity
Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) yesterday said that the commission has instructed the Taiwan Securities Association to tell its members to communicate with major market players for a better understanding of why they have stayed off the trading floor in the hope of persuading them to resume trading, while thin turnover in the local equity market reflected lingering worries as a possible interest rate hike in the US next month becomes more likely. He said that a stronger US dollar has raised fears of more fund outflows from Taiwan, adding that is the last thing the local equity market wants to see. However, Tseng said that once uncertainty over a rate increase by the Fed is removed, trading in the local stock market is expected to return to normal.
PETROCHEMICALS
CTCI wins Oman contract
CTCI Corp (中鼎工程), which builds refinery and power plant facilities, yesterday announced that its venture with US-based engineering conglomerate CB&I has been awarded a US$2.8 billion contract to build a petrochemical and plastics complex in Oman. The two companies are to build the Liwa Plastics Industrial Complex for Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Co. The project includes an 800-tonne steam cracker to produce ethylene. Last year, CTCI Corp was selected to build a petrochemical plant in Malaysia in another billion-dollar deal.
TELECOMS
Chunghwa eyes migration
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom operator, yesterday said it expects about 300,000 2G users to migrate to 4G by the end of February next year as a result of the government stimulus package. As of the end of September, Chunghwa Telecom had 920,000 2G subscribers, making up a big chunk of the nation’s 1.2 million 2G users, the company said. The government announced early this month that it would subsidize 4G handset purchases by NT$2,000 for each 2G subscriber migrating to 4G services from Nov. 7 to Feb. 29. The plan also includes a monthly subsidy of NT$200 for their phone bill for three months.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts