ECONOMY
Money supply growth slows
Last month’s M1B — a measure of money in circulation — grew 5.97 percent year-on-year, decelerating from a 6.55 percent increase the previous month, while M2 — which includes M1B, time deposits, foreign currency deposits and mutual funds — increased 2.92 percent, compared with a 3.14 percent increase in January, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. Money supply growth decelerated because of a slowdown in bank loans and investments, the central bank said. In the first two months of this year, the average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 were 6.26 percent and 3.03 percent respectively, it said.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
TTFB net profit rises 7.4%
Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團), which operates six restaurant chains in Taiwan and China, yesterday reported net profit of NT$353 million (US$11.5 million), or earnings per share of NT$15.17, for last year, up 7.4 percent from a year earlier. Consolidated revenue also grew 4.72 percent year-on-year to NT$4.3 billion. The company said that it is upbeat about its outlook for this year and plans to accelerate store expansion plans from the second quarter. Tai Tong last year operated 127 stores. The company is considering launching one or two new brands and adding 25 to 30 stores this year.
ELECTRONICS
Tul losses continue to mount
Tul Corp (撼訊), which supplies gaming and embedded graphics cards, yesterday reported a second consecutive loss for last quarter with losses per share of NT$4.24, compared with losses per share of NT$1.34 in the previous quarter. Tul benefited from demand for graphics cards for gaming computers and cryptocurrency mining early last year, but the company faced headwinds in the second half, mainly due to the piling up of inventories as the mining frenzy abated. For the whole of last year, Tul reported earnings per share of NT$4.09. The company has proposed a cash dividend of NT$2 per share, suggesting a payout ratio of 48.9 percent.
LIGHTING
Laster eyes smaller dividend
Laster Tech Corp Ltd (麗清), which produces automotive LED lighting components, has proposed cutting its cash dividend this year as the company takes into consideration future expansion plans and working capital needs. The company’s board plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.66 per share, based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$2.71. That compares with a NT$2.5 cash dividend it paid a year earlier on earnings per share of NT$3.81. In the first two months of this year, Laster Tech’s cumulative revenue dropped 18.03 percent annually to NT$663.39 million. The company said that its business in the first quarter of the year would be affected by a slowdown in China’s auto market.
MATERIALS
Swancor launches new plant
Swancor Industry Co Ltd (上緯), which manufactures rotor resin for wind turbines and corrosion-resistant materials, yesterday held an opening ceremony for its Malaysian subsidiary, which is to become the company’s first production base for corrosion-resistant materials outside the greater China region. Swancor Ind (M) Sdn Bhd operates a vinyl ester resin plant with an annual capacity of 70 million tonnes. The plant is to start trial production this month and is expected to provide products to Southeast Asian markets, the company said in a news release.
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