BANKING
Yuan deposits up 0.32%
Yuan deposits held by local banks rose 0.32 percent to 315.515 billion yuan (US$45,598 billion) at the end of last month, rising for the fourth straight month to the highest level since March, the central bank said yesterday. However, that was slower than the 0.65 percent increase in August as the Chinese currency continued to weaken against the greenback amid concern over increasing US-China trade tensions. Yuan deposits at domestic banking units fell 0.23 percent to 280.715 billion yuan last month, while those at offshore units grew 3.63 percent to 34.8 billion yuan, it said.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai to be suspended
The trading of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) shares is to be suspended from Thursday to Thursday next week due to a capital reduction of about 20 percent, the company said yesterday. Hon Hai in May announced that it would lower its paid-in capital by NT$34.66 billion (US$1.12 billion) to NT$138.63 billion. The reference stock price for the resumption of trading on Friday next week would be the closing price tomorrow divided by 0.8. Hon Hai shares shed 1.95 percent to close at NT$70.5 in Taipei trading yesterday.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Hotai Finance shares soar
Shares of Hotai Finance Corp (和潤), which provides car loans and insurance services, yesterday soared by 56.6 percent on their debut on the Emerging Stock Board to close at NT$83, compared with their initial public offering price of NT$53 per share. Hotai Finance reported cumulative revenue of NT$8.19 billion in the first three quarters, up 16.2 percent from a year earlier. Net profit in the first eight months totaled NT$1.29 billion, or earnings per share of NT$3.27.
COMPONENTS
TXC posts higher revenue
Quartz crystal components maker TXC Corp (台灣晶技) yesterday reported that its consolidated revenue increased 4.5 percent year-on-year to NT$829.31 million last month, while pretax profit grew 19.2 percent to NT$94.26 million, or pretax earnings per share of NT$0.3. The company said last month’s revenue reached the highest level in 22 months and pretax profit hit the highest level in a year, thanks to a better product mix and its expanding scale.
AUTOMOTIVE PARTS
Tong Yang’s profit declines
Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業), which supplies automotive metal sheets and bumpers to global brands, yesterday reported that its pretax profit last month declined 3.39 percent month-on-month to NT$141.11 million, the lowest level since June 2015 on less contribution from non-operating income. On an annual basis, pretax profit plunged by 53.65 percent. Aggregate pretax income in the first nine months fell 18.51 percent year-on-year to NT$1.798 billion, or earnings per share of NT$3, the company said.
EMPLOYMENT
Working hours decline
Average working hours in the nation totaled 181.7 in August, down 2.5 hours from a year earlier, but up 5.7 hours from a month earlier, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said in a report on Thursday last week. Average overtime hours totaled 8.1, up 0.2 hours from a year earlier, but unchanged from a month earlier, the DGBAS said. Average overtime pay rose 6.38 percent from a year earlier to NT$1,817, a 0.98 percent decline from July.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”