SEMICONDUCTORS
ASE, SPIL had 29.2% share
Taiwan’s chip testers and packagers Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) and Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) held a combined 29.2 percent share of the global market in 2014, rather than 60 percent as reported by some media, Gartner Inc said in a statement yesterday. The statement came amid concern by some competition watchdogs as ASE proposed to fully acquire its competitor. ASE held a 19 percent share, while SPIL had 10 percent, according to Gartner. ASE and SPIL generated a total of US$7.91 billion in revenue in 2014, making up about 29 percent of ovearall revenue of US$27.13 billion generated by the world’s chip testing and packaging industry, Gartner’s tally showed. ASE extended the deadline of its full acquisition bid to March 17 by one month, as the proposal is still under review by the Fair Trade Commission.
SOLAR CELLS
Tainergy profits double
Local solar cell maker Tainergy Tech Co Ltd (太極能源) yesterday reported full-year net profits that more than doubled to NT$333.26 million (US$9.93 million) last year after gross margin jumped to 13 percent in the final quarter of last year. That translated into earnings per share of NT$1.1, the best in five years, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. Gross margin for the full year was 10 percent. The solar cell maker’s gross margin stood at 8 percent in the third quarter of last year. In 2014, Tainergy made NT$192 million, or NT$0.66 a share, in net profit. However, revenue last year shrank to NT$5.16 billion, from NT$6.55 billion the prior year.
MACROECONOMics
Priortize jobs, wages: poll
Most Taiwanese are hoping that when president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her administration take office in May, more attention will be given to creating jobs and boosting wages, a poll by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) showed yesterday. Forty-two percent of respondents said they expect more jobs and higher wages under Tsai’s leadership, while 16 percent said they are hoping the new administration will improve industrial structure and narrow the income gap. Only 6.8 percent of the respondents said the new administration should actively promote Taiwan’s bid to enter the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc. The survey was conducted from Feb. 1 to Feb. 7 via online questionnaires on 15,552 clients of Cathay Life Insurance (國泰人壽) and Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行).
STOCK MARKET
TAIEX closes up 0.12%
The TAIEX closed slightly higher yesterday as buying emerged late in the session, helping the market to recoup its earlier losses and end in positive territory, dealers said. The buying was focused on select large-cap stocks in the electronics and financial sectors, but interest also rotated to renewable energy stocks like solar energy firms on hopes that president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will introduce measures to lift the sector after she takes office, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 0.12 percent, at the day’s high of 8,325.04, on turnover of NT$75.16 billion. Market heavyweights such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) were at the center of the buying, dealers said. “With crude oil prices rebounding and the yuan stabilizing, global financial markets have settled down and foreign investors are moving their funds back into the region,” Concord Securities (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang said.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained