Exports see rapid rise
Export orders in September rose 20.4 percent from the same month last year to a new record high, boosted by an accelerating global economic recovery, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Orders -- indicative of shipments in one to three months -- last month rose to NT$523.21 billion (US$15.40 billion), up from August's NT$488.90 billion (US$14.39 billion).
Improving consumer confidence and recovering economic indicators in the US, as well as rapid economic recovery in East Asia, are fueling Taiwan's export orders and output ahead, said Chang Yaw-tzong (張耀宗), a ministry statistics director.
The fourth quarter is the peak season for the electronics sector and this will also help, he said.
Compal Q3 profit up 27%
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電子), the world's second-largest maker of notebook computers, said third-quarter profit rose 27 percent to NT$2.65 billion (US$78 million).
Net income at the Taipei-based company for the three months ended Sept. 30 rose from NT$2.1 billion a year ago. Sales, earlier reported, rose 47 percent to NT$41.1 billion.
Gross margin was 17 percent for Compal's handsets, compared with 7 percent for laptops, analysts said. Overall gross margin for the third quarter fell to 8.1 percent from 9.3 percent in the previous quarter, Compal said.
Far EasTone payment made
AT&T Wireless Services Inc, the biggest publicly traded US mobile-telephone company, said it received the first payment from the US$330 million sale of its stake in Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信).
AT&T Wireless said it received about US$250 million in cash in exchange for about 76 percent of its 22.74 percent stake from companies affiliated with closely held Far Eastern Group.
The second stage of the sale, the US$80 million transaction, is expected to be completed by the end of the month, AT&T Wireless said.
Tamura seeks local partners
Tamura Trading Co, one of the largest Japanese vegetable and fruit distributors, said yesterday it will seek joint venture partners to set up special farms in Taiwan to grow vegetables for export to Japan.
Tamura Co Chairman Yasuo Tamura said his company plans to join forces with local partners to set up "contract farms" with total acreage of more than 1,000 hectares in the next five years.
"These farms will grow vegetables, such as great burdocks, onions, carrots and white radishes for export to Japan," Tamura said at a new conference. He also said that his company will purchase at least NT$15.5 billion worth of vegetables from Taiwan after the proposed "contract farms" are established.
HSBC see rapid home loan rise
HSBC Holdings Plc's Taiwan unit said new home loans tripled in the nine months to Sept. 30, increasing its outstanding mortgages in the island to NT$35 billion (US$1 billion).
An improving economy buoyed the nation's residential property market after a decade-long slump in real-estate values, said Eric Chih, senior vice president for personal financial services.
"We aim at growing our home loan portfolio by at least 20 percent in 2004 by expanding our customer base to first-time home buyers from the current refinancing customers," Chih said in Taipei. He didn't say how much the bank lent to homebuyers in the nine months.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.030 to close at NT$33.975 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$870 million.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
FAULTs BELOW: Asia is particularly susceptible to anything unfortunate happening to the AI industry, with tech companies hugely responsible for its market strength The sudden slump in Asia’s technology shares last week has jolted investors, serving as a stark reminder that the world-beating rally in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor stocks might be nearing a short-term crest. The region’s sharpest decline since April — triggered by a tech-led sell-off on Wall Street — has refocused attention on cracks beneath the surface: the rally’s narrow breadth, heavy reliance on retail traders, and growing uncertainty around the timing of US Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts. Last week’s “sell-off is a reminder that Asia’s market structure is just more vulnerable,” Saxo Markets chief investment strategist Charu Chanana said in
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