LOGISTICS
Hon Hai approves purchase
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) board yesterday approved the company spending US$14.26 million to acquire a 40 percent stake, or 1.62 million shares, in logistics company FSK L&S Co Ltd. South Korea-based FSK L&S is a joint venture between Hon Hai’s logistics subsidiary, ChengDu Jusda Supply Chain Management Co Ltd (準時達), and SK Holding C&C Co, which was established in October last year. The US$14.26 million investment in FSK L&S is part of Hon Hai’s strategy to help the company achieve long-term growth, Hon Hai said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
EQUITIES
Asian shares mixed
Asian stocks were mixed as many markets reopened after national holidays. Chinese shares fell as geopolitical risks lingered, while Japanese equities rose on speculation losses had been overdone. The MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index rose 0.4 percent as of 4:59pm with an almost equal number of shares rising and declining. South Korean shares climbed after a failed missile launch by Pyongyang at the weekend. Japan’s TOPIX gained 0.5 percent, even as the yen gained 0.3 percent against the US dollar. S&P 500 futures fell 0.1 percent. The Australian, New Zealand and Hong Kong markets were closed for national holidays. Chinese shares tumbled to their lowest level this month amid concerns over North Korea and a call by the nation’s regulator for stricter supervision of companies. Separately, the world’s second-largest economy expanded 6.9 percent in the first quarter, according to data released yesterday.
IT
Spending to grow 4.2%
The nation’s information technology (IT) spending is expected to grow 4.2 percent this year to NT$666.98 billion (US$21.98 billion) from NT$640.19 billion last year, partly due to the appreciation of US dollar against the world’s other major currencies, market researcher Gartner Inc forecast yesterday. Taiwan’s growth is greater than the global average. Worldwide IT spending is to rise by only 1.4 percent this year to US$3.46 trillion from US$3.41 trillion last year, lower than Gartner’s previous forecast of 2.7 percent growth, the researcher said. “The strong US dollar has cut US$67 billion out of our 2017 IT spending forecast,” Gartner analyst John-David Lovelock said.
TELECOMS
Far EasTone to issue bonds
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信), the nation’s third-largest telecom, yesterday said its board has approved issuing NT$4.5 billion of corporate bonds in Taiwan. The firm plans to use the funds to repay loans and to strengthen its financial structure, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) is to underwrite the bond issue.
HOUSING
Average price highest ever
Average house prices stood at 9.35 times average income in the third quarter of last year, the highest level ever, according to housing affordability data released yesterday by the Construction and Planning Agency. The data showed that the average mortgage burden was 38.49 percent in the third quarter last year, meaning that every month nearly 40 percent of an average worker’s disposable income was spent on mortgage payments. The mortgage burden was 1.35 percentage points higher than the second quarter last year and 2.4 percentage points higher than the same period the previous year, the data showed.
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
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],”
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
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day