CHIPMAKERS
TSMC revenue up 30.9%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that revenue jumped 30.9 percent to NT$79.72 billion (US$2.58 billion) last month from NT$60.89 billion in February. That brought the chipmaker’s first-quarter revenue to NT$217.7 billion, down 11.8 percent from NT$248.08 billion in the same period last year. Last quarter’s figure represented a quarterly decline of 24.52 percent, matching the company’s revised estimate of US$7 billion to US$7.1 billion. TSMC cut its earnings forecast due to worse-than-expected damages from faulty photoresist in January.
CHIPMAKERS
UMC revenue dips slightly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 3 contract chipmaker, yesterday reported NT$10.33 billion in revenue for last month, sliding slightly from NT$10.42 billion in February. In the first three months of this year, UMC saw revenue shrink 13.11 percent to NT$32.58 billion, compared with NT$37.5 billion in the same period last year. UMC gave a gloomy outlook for the first quarter, saying shipments would fall about 7 percent quarter-on-quarter due primarily to soft demand for entry-level and mid-range smartphones.
MANUFACTURING
Yageo revenue rises 13.5%
Passive component maker Yageo Corp (國巨) said that revenue last month rose about 13.5 percent to NT$3.52 billion, compared with NT$3.1 billion in February, as the number of working days returned to normal after the Lunar New Year holiday. In the first quarter of this year, revenue totaled NT$11.39 billion, up 3.3 percent year-on-year, but representing a quarterly decline of 29.8 percent. Yageo attributed last quarter’s weakness to sluggish demand from China. Yageo said that it has not seen a clear recovery in demand from China this quarter.
CHIPMAKERS
NAND memory boosts Adata
Adata Technology Co (威剛科技), the world’s second-largest memory module supplier, said that revenue increased 10.96 percent to NT$2.27 billion last month from NT$2.05 billion in February, benefiting from rising shipments of NAND flash memory products. DRAM demand was conservative due to tight supply of PC processors from Intel Corp, Adata said. DRAM made up 51 percent of Adata’s revenue last month. In the first quarter, Adata saw revenue contract 19.45 percent to NT$6.41 billion from NT$7.96 billion in the same period last year.
BANKING
SME lending decreases
Local banks’ small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending totaled NT$6.43 trillion as of the end of February, decreasing by NT$7.94 billion from a month earlier, as SMEs tend to repay more before the Lunar New Year in bid to save money on interest, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Tuesday. It was the second consecutive month that lending had declined. While state-run Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) and Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) saw their combined SME lending drop by NT$41 billion from the end of last year, their privately managed peers — including CTBC Bank (中信銀行), Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) and HSBC Bank (Taiwan) Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) — increased their loans to SMEs. the data showed.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last