ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai sales hit record
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Friday reported consolidated sales of NT$395.59 billion (US$12.9 billion) for last month, the highest for the month in the company’s history. The figures were 1.46 percent higher than the previous month and up 25.56 percent from a year earlier, Hon Hai said. In the first seven months of this year, cumulative revenue totaled NT$2.504 trillion, up 13.34 percent from a year earlier. Computing products were the main sales drivers during the period, followed by consumer electronics and communication products, it said.
INVESTMENT
Fund outflows continue
Foreign institutional investors last month recorded a net fund outflow of US$2.53 billion, marking the fourth consecutive month of net outflows amid concerns over an escalating trade war between the US and China, the Financial Supervisory Commission said. In addition to unfavorable external factors, foreign institutional investors also repatriated funds after receiving hefty cash dividends from their investments in local stocks, the commission said. In the first seven months of this year, foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$264.96 billion in local shares, it said.
MACROECONOMICS
CPI up 1.75% on tax hike
The nation’s consumer price index (CPI) last month rose 1.75 percent from a year earlier due largely to a spike in the prices of tobacco and betel nuts caused by a tax hike, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said on Tuesday last week. Excluding fruit, vegetables and energy, core CPI increased 1.5 percent year-on-year, it said. In the first seven months of this year, CPI increased 1.65 percent annually, it said.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
The US said it plans to help build a first-of-its-kind industrial hub in the Philippines to boost production of inputs crucial to US supply chains. The 4,000-acre hub is intended to be “a purpose-built platform for allied manufacturing” and “an investment acceleration hub where the specific industrial activities are shaped by market demand,” the US Department of State said on Thursday. The project — touted as an “economic security zone” — would be within the Luzon Economic Corridor, a flagship economic project backed by the US and Japan on the main Philippine island. The project was also described as “the first artificial intelligence
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