FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Reserves rise to US$434bn
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$434.087 billion last month, an increase of US$535 million from June, the central bank said yesterday. The bank attributed the increase to a successful management strategy, even though the depreciation of the euro and other reserve currencies against the US dollar pared the gains slightly. Meanwhile, securities investment and New Taiwan dollar deposits held by foreign portfolio investors reached US$301 billion last month, equivalent to 69 percent of foreign exchange reserves, the bank said.
FISCAL
Average debt holds steady
The average national debt shouldered by Taiwanese remained at NT$231,000 (US$7,317) at the end of last month, virtually unchanged from the previous month, Ministry of Finance statistics showed. The national debt is effectively under control, as the latest figures were also nearly flat from a year earlier, the ministry said. As of Sunday, the outstanding long-term debt with a maturity of more than one year totaled NT$5.33 trillion, while the short-term debt was NT$110 billion, the ministry said.
TELECOMS
Catcher Q2 profit dips
Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), a metal casing supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday reported a 26.4 percent annual decline in net income for the second quarter to NT$3.86 billion, or earnings per share of NT$5.01. On a quarterly basis, net profit fell 7.2 percent. In the first half of this year, net income dropped 18.98 percent annually to NT$8.02 billion, or earnings per share of NT$10.41. Revenue in the first seven months slid 7.8 percent year-on-year to NT$40.36 billion, Catcher said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Novatek first-half profit falls
Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠), the nation’s biggest supplier of driver ICs for LCD panels, yesterday said net income fell 20.84 percent annually to NT$2.52 billion, or NT$4.14 per share, in the first half of the year, due to adjustments in product mix and pricing. Gross margin improved 0.2 percentage points from a year ago to 28.79 percent, while revenue dropped 10.79 percent to NT$22.41 billion over the same period, Novatek said. The company forecast that sales for this quarter would range between NT$11.7 billion and NT$12.1 billion; gross margin would reach 27 to 28.5 percent; and operating margin would be 11.5 to 13 percent.
TELECOMS
Largan sales hit year high
Largan Precision Co (大立光), a camera lens supplier for Apple’s iPhones, yesterday reported revenue of NT$4.59 billion for last month, its best monthly sales this year, as it ramped up production of new products for clients. Although revenue rose 27.71 percent from a month ago, the figure dropped 12.64 percent from a year earlier, Largan said. Combined revenue in the first seven months totaled NT$22.91 billion, down 22.61 percent from the same period last year.
TELECOMS
HTC posts 16th sales drop
Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday posted an annual drop of 14.69 percent in sales to NT$6.32 billion last month, marking its 16th straight month of annual declines. On a monthly basis, sales edged down 0.61 percent from the previous month, company data showed. Aggregate revenue in the first seven months of the year totaled NT$40 billion, plummeting 51.18 percent from a year earlier, the company 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