MACROECONOMICS
M1B, M2 growth rates fall
The monthly growth rates of the monetary aggregates M1B and M2 last month fell 0.24 percent and 0.13 percent respectively, the central bank said yesterday. The annual growth rate of M1B, a narrow measure of the amount of money in circulation, last month decreased to 6.35 percent, while the annual growth rate of the broader M2 monetary measurement — which includes M1B, time deposits, foreign-currency deposits and mutual funds — slowed to 3.98 percent, mainly because of net foreign-capital outflows, the bank said. For the first 10 months of this year, the average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 were 6.34 percent and 4.6 percent respectively, it added.
EARNINGS
Listed firms see declines
Aggregate revenues and pre-tax earnings of listed companies in the first three quarters of this year registered simultaneous declines for the first time since the 2008 global financial crisis, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday. In the first nine months, aggregate sales by companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and Taipei Exchange (TPEX) fell 2.13 percent annually to NT$20.16 trillion (US$631.4 billion), with pre-tax income falling 7.37 percent annually to NT$1.4 trillion. The declines in TWSE-listed companies were led by optoelectronic and DRAM suppliers, while among TPEX-listed companies, construction companies where the hardest hit, the commission said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Book-to-bill ratio falls
The book-to-bill ratio for North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers declined from 1.05 in September to 0.91 last month, statistics released by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) showed on Tuesday. A ratio of 0.91 means that US$91 worth of orders were received for every US$100 of products billed in the month. “Total equipment billings increased 9 percent in October over September, while bookings contracted 5 percent,” SEMI president and chief executive officer Denny McGuirk said in a news release.
AEROSPACE
AIDC, Mitsubishi ink deal
Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空工業) yesterday announced that it has inked a five-year agreement to supply aircraft engine parts to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Aero Engine Ltd in Nagoya, Japan. Taiwan’s largest civilian and military aircraft manufacturer would supply parts for the Trent 7000 engine, which is used on airliners such as the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A330neo, AIDC said, adding that it would also seek collaboration with Mitsubishi to build the Trent XWB engine.
TRANSPORTATION
Fitch confirms THSRC rating
Fitch Ratings Ltd on Monday confirmed Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) long-term rating as “AA+(twn),” with a “stable” outlook. The company’s credit prospects are linked to Taiwan’s sovereign rating reflected in the government’s controlling stake, as well as to its robust strategic importance as the nation’s sole high-speed rail operator and close ties with the government, Fitch said. The company’s largest shareholders are the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, China Aviation Development Foundation, China Steel Corp (中鋼) and Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖). These factors result in a high likelihood of extraordinary state support for the company, if needed, Fitch said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to