BANKING
Yuan activity on the rise
Yuan deposits at Taiwanese banks rose 0.48 percent last month to 318.23 billion yuan (US$48.35 billion), after falling for five consecutive months as local investors increased holdings, the latest data released by the central bank showed yesterday. Yuan deposits edged up 0.04 percent to 271.28 billion yuan at domestic banking units and grew 3.12 percent to 46.95 billion yuan at offshore banking units, the data showed. Remittances hit 345.15 billion yuan last month, up 64.19 percent from 210.22 billion yuan in November, as yuan activity tends to be stronger at the end of the year, the central bank said.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Canadian double tax cut
Taiwan and Canada have signed an agreement to prevent the taxation of the same income twice in the two nations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The signing was completed earlier in the day and is likely to take effect on Jan. 1 next year, after the two sides complete the necessary domestic procedures, the ministry said in a statement. The ministry hoped the agreement would help create a friendlier environment for bilateral investment, especially considering the potential for further cooperation in the technology, healthcare, clean energy, sustainable development and services sectors. Canada is Taiwan’s 24th-largest trade partner and 17th-largest export market, while Taiwan is Canada’s 12th-largest trade partner, the ministry said.
BANKING
King’s Town buy-back ends
King’s Town Bank (京城銀行) yesterday said it had completed its latest round of a share buyback scheme, as the Tainan-based medium-sized bank repurchased 12 million common shares on the open market at NT$22.87 per share on average since Dec. 1 last year. The lender’s shares closed down 2.18 percent at NT$20.2 yesterday in Taipei trading. King’s Town Bank reported net profit of NT$3.68 billion for last year, with earnings per share of NT$3.09.
AUTOMAKERS
Flat yearly growth forecast
Teco Electric and Machinery Co (東元電機), the nation’s largest maker of industrial motors, yesterday said the economy might show “flat growth” this year. “We are not too pessimistic about the economy this year, but we cannot be optimistic either,” Teco chairman Theodore Huang (黃茂雄) told reporters ahead a product launch in Taipei, citing the impacts of an economic recovery in the US, a slowdown in China and uncertainty for Europe. Huang did not provide his economic growth forecast this year. Nomura Holdings Inc this week cut its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth to 1.5 percent this year, from its previous estimate of 2.4 percent, leaving Taiwan with one of the region’s weakest growth rates.
OBITUARY
Humble House founder dies
My Humble House Group (寒舍集團) founder Tsai Chen-yang (蔡辰洋), 66, died of a heart attack early yesterday, his family said. The son of Tsai Wan-tsun (蔡萬春), the late founder of the family business group, Tsai Chen-yang founded My Humble House Hospitality Management Consulting Co (寒舍餐旅管理顧問) that operates Le Meridien Taipei, Sheraton Grand Taipei Hotel, Humble House Taipei and A ROY DEE by Sukhothai and Raku Kitchen restaurants. Tsai Chen-yang was a member of the second generation of one of the nation’s wealthiest families, which run several businesses, including Cathay Financial Group (國泰集團).
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
People walk past advertising for a Syensqo chip at the Semicon Taiwan exhibition in Taipei yesterday.
NO BREAKTHROUGH? More substantial ‘deliverables,’ such as tariff reductions, would likely be saved for a meeting between Trump and Xi later this year, a trade expert said China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector on Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok. China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog integrated circuits (ICs) imported from the US. The investigation is to target some commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments Inc and ON Semiconductor Corp. The ministry also announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector. US measures such as export curbs and tariffs
The US on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired US chipmaking equipment for China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), including them among 32 entities that were added to the US Department of Commerce’s restricted trade list, a US government posting showed. Twenty-three of the 32 are in China. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co (吉姆西半導體科技) and Jicun Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co (吉存半導體科技) were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp (中芯北方積體電路) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp (中芯北京), the US Federal Register posting said. The
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