The contrast between Apple Inc’s ascension to a US$1 trillion stock and the share performance of its biggest iPhone assembler just got even starker.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has surrendered its position as Taiwan’s second-biggest stock after six years.
Concern is mounting for some Taiwanese Apple suppliers, which are struggling to adjust to a new dynamic of higher-priced iPhones because their revenue relies on the number of devices sold.
Hon Hai has slipped behind Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s only publicly traded oil refiner, which has a market cap of NT$1.32 trillion (US$42.9 billion), according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has a value of NT$6.74 trillion.
Apple unveiled its new iPhone XS and XS Max devices earlier this month, though preorders are weaker than those for the iPhone X, according to Rosenblatt Securities Inc.
Taiwan’s Apple suppliers have seen their share prices fall as shipment growth has stagnated.
Hon Hai has slumped 38 percent since hitting a record price in the middle of last year and is trading at its lowest level relative to the MSCI ACWI/Information Technology Index since 2002.
Investors are shifting funds to defensive stocks like Formosa Petrochemical because of macroeconomic uncertainties, including the China-US trade war, Reliance Securities Investment Consultant Co (德信投信) vice president Richard Lin said.
The downward trend could continue for Hon Hai, Capital Investment Management Corp (群益投顧) vice president Alan Tseng said.
“Apple suppliers are bearing the risks of possible disappointing sales of the new iPhones,” he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last