The nation’s hypermarkets and department stores said yesterday they are conservative about sales growth in the second half of this year as consumer spending is likely to be undercut by higher oil and electricity prices.
Far Eastern Department Stores Ltd (遠東百貨), the nation’s third largest department store chain with eight stores nationwide, expects sales to grow by 5 percent year-on-year in the second half, down from 8 percent growth in the first half.
Meo Cheng (鄭家蕙), public relations manager at Far Eastern, said the recent increase in the oil price had lowered the shopping frequency rate of its customers as they attempt to save money on gasoline.
Far Eastern Geant Co (愛買), the third-largest hypermarket chain in Taiwan, said it hoped sales growth this quarter would be maintained at 10 percent year-on-year.
“But it will still depend on sales performance during the upcoming Moon Festival [Aug. 15], which is one of the most important holiday periods for hypermarkets, as it generally accounts for 20 percent of our annual sales,” Henry Yin (尹皓), public relations assistant manager at Far Eastern Geant, said yesterday.
Both Far Eastern Department Stores and Far Eastern Geant, along with three other stores and hypermarkets, received awards from the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday in recognition of their efforts to help stimulate domestic consumption through the launch of various promotional activities.
From India to China to the US, automakers cannot make vehicles — not that no one wants any, but because a more than US$450 billion industry for semiconductors got blindsided. How did both sides end up here? Over the past two weeks, automakers across the world have bemoaned the shortage of chips. Germany’s Audi, owned by Volkswagen AG, would delay making some of its high-end vehicles because of what chief executive officer Markus Duesmann called a “massive” shortfall in an interview with the Financial Times. The firm has furloughed more than 10,000 workers and reined in production. That is a further blow
Answering to a reported request by Germany to help address a chip shortage in its auto industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said that it was in talks with domestic chip suppliers. Foreign media over the weekend reported that German Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier had sent a request to Taipei to ask Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to cooperate more closely with German automakers to provide microchips and sensors, to bridge a shortage that has emerged over the past few months. The MOEA said that it had not yet received the request and could therefore not elaborate
FOCUS ON FOUNDRIES: An analyst said that some investors would be disappointed because they were expecting a larger announcement of a partnership with TSMC Intel Corp’s incoming chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger on Thursday pledged to regain the company’s lead in chip manufacturing, countering growing calls from some investors to shed that part of its business. “I am confident that the majority of our 2023 products will be manufactured internally,” Gelsinger said. “At the same time, given the breadth of our portfolio, it’s likely that we will expand our use of external foundries for certain technologies and products.” He plans to provide more details after officially taking over the CEO role on Feb. 15, but Gelsinger was clear that Intel is sticking with its once mighty
AWARENESS NEEDED: The central bank urged lenders to know their customers before undertaking business for them and to seek funding in conventional ways The central bank yesterday said that it would take action against four foreign lenders for their involvement in helping companies trade in the deliverable forward market in contravention of foreign-exchange regulations. Some grain merchants newly based in Taiwan have since July 2019 been practicing questionable currency-trading activity, with the help of branches and subsidiaries of six foreign banks, the monetary policymaker told an unscheduled news conference. Affiliated firms as of July last year completed currency-related deals they referred to as trading that totaled US$11 billion, which was not in sync with their real business needs, the central bank said after wrapping up
RSS