Forex reserves fall in January
Foreign exchange reserves totaled US$425.98 billion as of the end of last month, a decrease of US$53 million from a month earlier, the central bank said yesterday.
The main factor behind the decrease was that returns from the management of reserve assets were offset by the depreciation of the euro and other reserve currencies against the US dollar, the bank said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the market value of securities, bonds and New Taiwan dollar deposits held by foreign investors reached US$242.9 billion at the end of last month, accounting for 57 percent of the foreign exchange reserves, the bank said.
MediaTek sales up 22.11%
Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday reported better-than-expected sales of NT$21.326 billion (US$636.22 million) last month, up by 22.11 percent from a year earlier and 15.15 percent from the previous month. The company on Monday provided weaker-than-expected sales guidance for this quarter, expecting sales to contract by 7 percent to 15 percent quarterly to between NT$52.5 billion and NT$57.4 billion due to fewer working days caused by the Lunar New Year holiday.
Hota sees record-high sales
Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業) yesterday said its consolidated sales last month were the highest monthly figures in the company’s history at NT$502.998 million.
The company, which makes gears and shafts for automobiles, counts BorgWarner Inc, Tesla Motors Inc, Bombardier Recreational Products and Punch Powertrain NV among its major customers. Hota said last month’s sales were 16.45 percent higher than a year earlier and 4.08 percent more than the previous month.
Innolux, AUO sales drop
The nation’s two leading flat-panel makers reported mixed sales last month, dragged down by falling TV panel prices and a weaker NT dollar.
Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that consolidated sales decreased 41.5 percent year-on-year and 20.2 percent month-on-month to NT$21.1 billion, while AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) reported that consolidated sales dropped 24.4 percent annually and 5.7 percent monthly to NT$24.29 billion last month.
Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) forecast Innolux’s sales this quarter would fall 13.7 percent from last quarter and AUO would report a 7 percent quarterly decline.
ChipMOS repurchasing shares
ChipMOS Technologies Inc (南茂科技), a Hsinchu-based IC packaging and testing services provider, on Thursday said its board plans to repurchase 15 million shares on the open market, as it views current share prices as undervalued and a good investment opportunity.
The company said in a statement that it plans to buy back shares at or below NT$40 per share between yesterday and April 4, with a total purchase of up to NT$600 million.
ChipMOS shares closed at NT$31.8 on Wednesday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
ASE extends SPIL share offer
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s largest chip tester and packager, on Thursday said it would again extend the period of a tender offer to purchase up to 770 million shares of Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) by another month from Feb. 16 to March 14.
ASE, which already owns about an about 25 percent stake in SPIL, said in a statement that the terms and conditions of the offer remain unchanged. ASE in December last year offered to buy 770 million shares, or a 24.7 percent stake in SPIL, at NT$55 per share.
Elan sales drop 20% yearly
Touchpad controller chipmaker Elan Microelectronics Corp (義隆電子) on Thursday said its consolidated sales rose 5.4 percent to NT$532 million last month from the previous month, thanks to higher shipments of touchpad applications used in notebook computers.
However, last month’s sales represented a decrease of 20.3 percent from a year ago, the company said in a statement.
Sales from touch controller-related products accounted for 65 percent of the company’s total revenue last month, with non-touch controller-related products made up the remaining 35 percent.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by