EQUITIES
Tariff fears lower stocks
Local shares took a beating yesterday after the US listed US$200 billion of Chinese goods that are to be hit by new tariffs, escalating trade friction between the world’s two largest economies. As investors rushed to dump large-cap stocks, in particular in the bellwether electronics sector, the TAIEX fell below 10,700 points, but recovered some of its earlier losses on bargain-hunting by government-led funds, dealers said. The TAIEX ended the session down 80.05 points, or 0.74 percent, at 10,676.84 points, with turnover of NT$118.84 billion (US$3.9 billion).
STEELMAKERS
Dumping deflates firm’s stock
Shares of Chien Shing Stainless Steel Co (千興不銹鋼) yesterday plunged by the daily maximum of 10 percent after chairman Yeh Shuo-tang (葉碩堂) was detained over alleged dumping of industrial waste. The company confirmed that Yeh and former executive Sun Shih-kuo (孫世國) had on Tuesday been detained for allegedly engaging in the illegal dumping of tens of thousands of tonnes of hazardous waste at the company’s factories, but said that operations remain normal. The company said it would soon elect a new acting chairman.
ELECTRONICS
Supplier to spur Chinese unit
Electrical terminal supplier K.S. Terminals Inc (健和興端子) yesterday said its board approved a plan to inject US$20 million into its Chinese unit. The company has in the past few years teamed up with Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為) to explore opportunities in China’s growing digital infrastructure market. Cumulative revenue in the first half of this year edged up 0.76 percent from last year to NT$1.68 billion, company data showed.
HOSPITALITY
Regent sells mooncake sets
Regent Taipei (台北晶華酒店), the flagship property of Regent Hotels & Resorts (晶華麗晶酒店集團), on Tuesday launched a preorder sale for mooncake gift sets to boost food sales ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which this year falls on Sept. 24. The hotel said it aims to sell 36,000 gift sets at the same prices as last year, but through different sales channels. That would mean a 20 percent increase in volume from last year, it said.
TAXES
Overall revenue up 7.1%
Overall tax revenue increased 7.1 percent year-on-year to NT$1.334 trillion in the first half of this year, led by increases in corporate income tax, business tax and securities transaction tax revenues, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Last month alone, tax revenue dropped 2.4 percent from a year earlier to NT$478.9 billion due to a high comparison base in corporate income tax, housing tax and gift tax revenues, the ministry said.
LABOR
May wages rise 2.48%
Average regular wages in Taiwan in May increased 2.48 percent from a year earlier to NT$40,874, following an annual increase of 2.26 percent in April, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said on Tuesday. In the first five months of this year, average regular wages rose 2.55 percent from a year earlier to NT$40,720, the agency said. Meanwhile, working hours in May averaged 178.8, up 10.8 hours, or 6.43 percent, from a year earlier. In the first five months of this year, average working hours stood at 164.8, up three hours, or 1.85 percent, it added.
NO VIRUS BLUES: A SEMI Taiwan official said that the virus does not slow down the global semiconductor industry’s investment in manufacturing equipment The production value of the nation’s semiconductor industry is expected to grow 16.7 percent this year from last year, outpacing the global industry’s 3.3 percent growth, industry association SEMI said yesterday. That would help Taiwan safeguard its second spot in the global semiconductor market with a production value of more than NT$3 trillion (US$102.73 billion), SEMI Taiwan president Terry Tsao (曹世綸) told a media briefing in Taipei for the Semicon Taiwan trade show beginning today. The global semiconductor industry’s production value is expected to increase to US$426 billion this year, SEMI said. In terms of semiconductor equipment investment, equipment billings from Taiwanese firms
Intel Corp has received licenses from US authorities to continue supplying certain products to Huawei Technologies Co (華為), a company spokesman said yesterday. Washington has been pushing governments around to world to squeeze out Huawei, saying that the telecom giant would hand data to Beijing for espionage. From Monday last week, new curbs have barred US companies from supplying or servicing Huawei. This week, the state-backed China Securities Journal reported that Intel had received permission to supply Huawei. China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), which uses US-origin equipment to make chips for Huawei and other companies, last week confirmed that it had sought
Swancor Renewable Energy Co (上緯新能源) yesterday announced plans for a 4.4 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind project off Miaoli County as part of its commitment toward Taiwan’s energy transformation, the company said in a statement. The “Formosa 4” project includes three deep-water wind farms 18km to 20km off the coast, Swancor Renewable CEO Lucas Lin (林雍堯) said, adding that planning for the project began last year. A proposal for Formosa 4 was this week submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the company said. Swancor Renewable jointly developed the Formosa 1 project, a 128 megawatt (MW) wind farm about 4km off Miaoli and the
INVEST IN TAIWAN: A metal components casting firm and the world’s largest maker of aluminum bicycle rims also obtained approvals to join the program Solar Applied Materials Technology Co (SOLAR, 光洋應用材料), a part of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) “green supply chain,” has pledged to invest NT$1 billion (US$34.1 million) to build a new plant at the Tainan Technology Industrial Park (台南科技工業區), the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. SOLAR has been collaborating with TSMC to extract precious metals from waste and reuse them as “sputtering target” material in high-end semiconductor manufacturing, a TSMC press release issued in May said. Established in 1978, SOLAR also offers key materials and integrated services to customers in the optoelectronics, information and communications technology, petrochemicals and consumer electronics industries,
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