AUTOMAKERS
Model X debuts in Taiwan
US electric automaker Tesla Motors Inc yesterday launched its first Model X sports utility vehicle in Taiwan. The Model X, which can accelerate from zero to 100kph in 3.1 seconds, has a starting price of NT$4.043 million (US$131,053). The company said it plans to open its first after-sales center in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) and install more than 200 charging stations at 50 sites across the nation in the first half of this year to improve charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. However, Tesla declined to give details about delivery dates. It only said cars that have been ordered will be delivered by the end of this year.
CHIPMAKERS
MediaTek revenue falls
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), which designs handset chips that power a lot of Chinese mobile phone brands, including Xiaomi Corp (小米), yesterday posted a monthly revenue contraction of 7.44 percent for last month to NT$16.95 billion, the lowest in a year. The chipmaker made NT$18.31 billion in January. The company has said that weak demand in the first quarter would cause revenue decline of between 14 percent and 22 percent quarter-on-quarter to between NT$53.6 billion and NT$59.1 billion in the current quarter. In a separate statement, memorychip maker Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) said revenue fell 7.8 percent last month to NT$2.014 billion, from NT$2.19 billion in January. On an annual basis, revenue surged 23.7 percent from NT$1.63 billion in February last year. Accumulated consolidated net sales for January to last month were NT$4.199 billion, up 26.8 percent from NT$3.312 billion in the same period last year.
TELECOMS
Chunghwa approves dividend
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom operator, yesterday said that its board had approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4.94 per common share based on its net profit last year of NT$40.03 billion, or earnings per share of NT$5.16. The dividend represents a 4.82 percent premium on the company’s closing share price yesterday of NT$102.5. Meanwhile, Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信) said that its board approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$3.75 per common share.
STOCK MARKETS
TWSE unveils Web site
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) has launched a newly designed Web site for investors to focus on the merits of Taiwan’s equity market, in particular its relatively high dividend yields. The TWSE said the high yields make shares in Taiwan a good option for retail investors interested in taking advantage of a “small investment plan,” similar to a regular savings plan for investors who put their money into mutual funds. The average cash dividend yield for companies listed on the main exchange was 3.96 percent last year, trailing only 3.99 percent in the UK among the world’s major equity markets, the TWSE said, citing data compiled by Bloomberg. Taiwan’s average cash dividend yield was higher than in Singapore (3.76 percent), Hong Kong (3.7 percent) and the US (2.42 percent) as of the end of last year. The cash dividend yield represents the ratio of the annual cash dividend a company pays to its share price. A higher dividend yield means investors receive a higher return on their investment.
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