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.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the