SEMICONDUCTORS
ChipMOS to book hefty gains
Memorychip packager ChipMOS Technologies Inc (南茂) yesterday said it expects to book NT$2 billion (US$64.47 million) in gains from selling a 55 percent stake in its Shanghai subsidiary to China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd (清華紫光) for 498 million yuan (US$72.07 million). The company is scheduled to close the deal this quarter, ChipMOS chairman S.J. Cheng (鄭世杰) said. ChipMOS also reported that its net profit jumped 2.4 times to NT$631.9 million last quarter from NT$255.1 million in the previous quarter, although operating income slid 0.5 percent to NT$961 million. Cheng said revenue for this quarter would fall by 4 to 8 percent from last quarter’s NT$4.67 billion. The company plans to spend NT$4.1 billion on new equipment this year, up 31 percent from last year’s NT$3.12 billion, he said. The company's also approved a cash dividend NT$0.5 per common share, based on last year’s earnings of NT$1.76 a share.
BANKING
Fitch warns on rising debt
Taiwan’s high household leverage and growing debt service pressures may constrain its economic growth and act as a drag to improvement in the financial profiles of local banks, Fitch Ratings said yesterday. The ratings agency expects Taiwan’s household debt to rise to 84 percent of GDP in the coming two years. High and rising debt-service pressures would weigh on consumer spending despite an easy monetary policy, the agency said in a press release. A sharp correction in the property market could lead to losses on the part of banks because of their exposure to the household sector, it said. Home mortgages account for 57 percent of overall household debt, with the average loan-to-value (LTV) ratio standing at between 60 and 70 percent among most local banks, Fitch said. Risks would rise if banks compete to extend new mortgages at higher LTV ratio following the removal of regulatory LTV cap last year, Fitch said.
HOTELS
FDC sales slid 5.6%
FDC International Hotels Corp (FDC, 雲品國際) yesterday posted revenue of NT$107 million for last month, a decrease of 5.57 percent from a year earlier due to holiday disruptions, the company said in a statement. For the first two months, revenue totaled NT$266 million, a 5.27 percent gain from the same period last year, the company said. The company’s board approved a proposal to distribute cash dividends of NT$2.5 per share from earnings last year.
GARMENTS
Quang Viet posts sales drop
Garment maker Quang Viet Enterprise Co (廣越) yesterday reported sales of NT$153 million for last month, down 3.08 percent from the previous year, as the company is entering its slow season. In the first two months, sales slid 5 percent to NT$ 479.97 million, data showed. Quang Viet expects its shipments to reach 10 million units this year from last year’s 9.1 million units on the back of increasing orders from its major global brand customers, it said in a statement.
SHIPPING
Group tightens cooperation
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) yesterday announced that it and other members of “THE Alliance” has drawn up a new and unique contingency plan in the unlikely event that one of the members goes belly up. An independent trustee would be established by the five alliance members to manage the funds, which are to be used to ensure that customers’ cargo onboard the affected member’s ships are accounted for and carried to the port of destination, Yang Ming said in a press release. Other THE Alliance members are Hapag-Lloyd AG of Germany and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd, Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha Ltd of Japan.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”