FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Reserves drop US$915m
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves last month stood at US$434.35 billion, falling US$915 million from the previous month, the central bank said on Monday. The monetary policymaker attributed the decline to the depreciation of the euro and other major reserve currencies against the US dollar, which more than offset the returns it gained from exchange reserve management. The reserves are sufficient to meet demand given that securities investment and deposits held by foreign portfolio investors last month stood at US$303.8 billion, accounting for 70 percent of foreign exchange reserves.
MACROECONOMICS
SMEs upbeat over exports
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the nation remain broadly optimistic toward export prospects amid global economic volatility, according to a global study commissioned by FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. Seventy-nine percent of SMEs saw stable or increased exports over the past year, generating an average revenue of NT$39.42 million (US$1.23 million), accounting for 70 percent of their total revenue. About 42 percent forecast an average growth of 17 percent in the year ahead. SMEs are particularly bullish on intra-regional exports, with 52 percent anticipating 15 percent revenue growth on average. The study was conducted in September by Harris Interactive.
SMARTPHONES
Catcher sales hit year high
Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), which supplies metal casings for Apple Inc iPhones, on Monday reported sales of NT$8.2 billion for last month, the company’s best sales performance this year. Revenue dropped 1.63 percent annually, but expanded 0.24 percent from the previous month’s NT$8.18 billion, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. Catcher forecast combined revenue this quarter would climb significantly from last quarter’s NT$20.74 billion, peaking for this year. The company’s accumulated sales in the first 11 months of this year fell 5.32 percent to NT$71.48 billion from the same period last year, the filing showed.
SMARTPHONES
Largan sales fall 9 percent
Largan Precision Co (大立光), which supplies camera lenses for Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Monday posted sales of NT$5.2 billion for last month, down 9 percent from NT$5.7 billion a year earlier. Sales grew 2.76 percent from the previous month’s NT$5.06 billion, Largan said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company’s combined revenue reached NT$42.9 billion in the first 11 months of this year, down 17 percent from the NT$51.88 billion the same period last year, the filing showed.
BANKING
UBS downbeat on stocks
Swiss banking giant UBS AG yesterday maintained its downbeat view for Taiwanese stocks as prospects remain dim for the technology sector, which represents about 70 percent of the local bourse. UBS wealth management executive director Hyde Chen (陳彥甫) said that global demand for smartphones remains weak, but Taiwanese stocks are attractive to international investors seeking high dividend yields. The bank also expects the US dollar’s upward trend to lose steam next year as the nation’s fiscal condition worsens, while the yen and the euro are expected to improve as central banks taper off monetary easing policies.
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