EQUITIES
TAIEX closes higher
The TAIEX yesterday closed slightly higher, despite US markets incurring heavy losses overnight amid renewed concerns over a trade dispute between the US and China, dealers said. On the local bourse, late-session buying of select large-cap stocks in the electronics and non-technology sectors helped the market recoup its early losses and close in positive territory, they said. The benchmark index closed up 28.75 points, or 0.25 percent, at the day’s high of 11,531.58 on turnover of NT$107.360 billion (US$3.52 billion), Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$4.57 billion of shares, the data showed.
TRADE
Product labeling bill passed
A bill to increase the fines for fraudulent labeling of the origin of products was passed by the legislature yesterday. The amendments to the Foreign Trade Act (貿易法) raise the maximum fine for using fake trade certificates or placing fraudulent labels of origin on exports and imports from NT$300,000 to NT$3 million. The minimum fine has been doubled, from NT$30,000 to NT$60,000, as part of the nation’s efforts to prevent the transshipment of Chinese products to the US, the Cabinet said. The increased fines also apply to authorized organizations that issue illegal certificates of origin, it said.
CHIPMAKERS
Nanya revenue slumps
DRAM memorychip maker Nanya Technology Co (南亞科技) yesterday posted revenue for last month of NT$4.26 billion, a 21.1 percent year-on-year decline compared with NT$5.4 billion a year earlier. On a monthly basis, revenue contracted 5.73 percent, the company said in a statement. Last month’s revenue was the lowest since June. In the first 11 months of the year, Nanya posted revenue of NT$47.4 billion, a 40.67 percent decline from NT$79.89 billion in the same period last year due to lower DRAM prices.
CHIP TESTERS
CHPT revenue up 33.7%
Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co (CHPT, 中華精測), which provides wafer and chip testing services, yesterday posted revenue of NT$343.82 million for last month, up 33.7 percent from NT$257.16 million in the same period last year. That represented a 2.8 percent month-on-month decline from NT$353.65 million in October. In the first 11 months of the year, CHPT posted revenue of NT$3.08 billion, up 0.4 percent from NT$3.06 billion in the same period last year. The company said it is to book NT$260 million of depreciation costs this year for its new research-and-development center in Taoyuan.
ENERGY
CPC opens New Delhi office
State-run oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) on Monday opened a representative office in New Delhi as part of its plans to set up a plant in India. CPC is in negotiations with state-owned Indian Oil Corp to jointly set up a US$800 million plant to produce propylene derivatives, CPC president Lee Shun-chin (李順欽) said at the opening ceremony. Propylene derivatives, which are used in the production of a wide range of items such as acrylic resin and raw materials for computer monitors, are in short supply in India and demand is expected to increase sharply due to the large population and fast-growing economy, he said.
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