STEELMAKERS
CSC pretax profit rises 4.4%
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s only integrated steelmaker, yesterday posted pretax profit of NT$1.71 billion (US$56.14 million) for last month, a 4.4 percent increase from the previous month, due to soaring international steel prices and improving sentiment in global steel markets. In the first two months of this year, pretax profit totaled NT$3.34 billion, compared with a loss of NT$67.75 million in the same period last year. In the period, shipments totaled 1.69 million tonnes, the company said in a statement. China Steel shares yesterday rose 0.19 percent to close at NT$25.9 in Taipei trading.
PAPERMAKERS
Long Chen to pay dividend
Long Chen Paper Co (榮成紙業), an industrial papermaker, yesterday said its board approved a cash dividend of NT$1.5 per share, up from NT$1 a year ago, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. The company is to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 14 to discuss the proposal. The board also approved the issuance of 60 million shares at NT$25 each to fuel a NT$1.5 billion capital injection.
LIFE INSURERS
Forex losses hit NT$35.8bn
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday said the nation’s life insurers in January took a NT$227.1 billion hit from foreign exchange losses. Of the amount, NT$191.3 billion was offset by hedging, leaving total foreign exchange losses of NT$35.8 billion. The amount is expected to be lower for last month, as preliminary filings by life insurers showed that profits were on the rise during the period, compared with a NT$4.8 billion loss in January, the commission said. Life insurers have a total of NT$23.1 billion in reserve against foreign exchange volatility, it added. In light of life insurers’ massive overseas investments, lawmakers have raised concerns about foreign exchange losses for the firms, as the New Taiwan dollar has risen by about 5 percent this year.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Greenback falls NT$0.069
The US dollar yesterday fell against the NT dollar, shedding NT$0.069 to close at NT$30.458, as overseas funds continued to flow into the nation, dealers said. Strong institutional buying on the local stock market put added downward pressure on the US dollar, which tumbled against the local currency for the fifth consecutive session, they said. With the US dollar likely to remain weak in global markets, foreign investors remitted more of their funds into Taiwan to park their money in non-US dollar-denominated assets, strengthening the NT dollar, they said. A strong showing on the stock market on the back of massive foreign institutional buying gave local currency traders additional motivation to cut their US dollar holdings, they added. Foreign institutional investors yesterday bought a net NT$16 billion in shares on the stock market, sending the weighted index up 0.6 percent at the close, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
CHIPMAKERS
UMC to transfer technology
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the nation’s No. 2 contract chipmaker, yesterday said it has gained regulatory approval to transfer its 28-nanometer fabrication technology to a subsidiary based in Xiamen, China. UMC is to book cash gains of US$200 million in licensing fees, the company said, adding that the amount would not be counted as profit due to the parent-subsidiary relationship. The Xiamen subsidiary is expected to begin production of 28-nanometer chips next quarter, UMC 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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts