TAIEX trades lower
The TAIEX closed 0.83 percent lower in Taipei yesterday, tracking losses in other regional markets, dealers said.
The weighted index fell 51.38 points to 6,144.53 on turnover of NT$94.92 billion (US$2.97 billion).
Gainers led losers by 1,534 to 617, with 129 stocks unchanged.
The cement sector slumped 2.23 percent, financials dropped 1.61 percent and the electronics sector fell 0.39 percent.
“We haven’t seen solid reasons for a rebound,” said David Li of Daiwa Securities SMBC-Cathay Co (大和國泰證券), predicting that the index could fall below the 6,000 level in the short term.
Chinese Mobile seeks stake
China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), the world’s biggest wireless carrier by number of users, plans to seek regulatory approval for a proposed investment in Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), company chairman Wang Jianzhou (王建宙) said yesterday.
After the deal is approved, China Mobile won’t seek a controlling stake in Far EasTone and won’t interfere in the daily operations of the company, Wang said.
Inotera to rent factory
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a computer-memory chip joint venture set up by Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Micron Technology Inc, said it plans to rent a factory and equipment from parent company Nanya.
The chipmaker will pay a total of NT$1.67 billion (US$50 million) in rent for the 8-inch semiconductor plant for the next 15 years, the Taoyuan-based company said yesterday.
Shining looks to China
Local property developer Shining Building Business Co (鄉林建設) is planning to construct up to seven luxury resorts in China between 2013 and 2014, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday, citing company chairman Lai Cheng-i (賴正鎰).
The Taichung-based company will spend around NT$11 billion (US$334 million) on the project, Lai said in the report. Shining Building aims to build as many as 30 resorts in China by 2019.
Shining is the constructor and operator of the upscale Lalu (涵碧樓) resort at Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) in Nantou County.
Server-computer sales slump
Global server-computer sales will drop more than projected this quarter as companies rein in technology spending amid the recession, research firm IDC said.
Sales will slump 30 percent to US$10.6 billion, IDC said on Wednesday, cutting its forecast by about US$1 billion. The drop compares with the first quarter’s 25 percent fall.
“The depth of the worldwide recession increased in the first half of 2009,” said Matt Eastwood, an IDC vice president.
Still, the worst of the contraction may be over and the market should show signs of stabilization, IDC said. Full-year server sales would drop 22 percent, it predicted.
SK Chemicals inks deal
SK Chemicals Co has signed a preliminary agreement with a Taiwanese company to make a material used in solar panels.
Details on when SK Chemicals will make polysilicon haven’t yet been decided, the South Korean company said yesterday in an e-mail. An earlier report said a Taiwanese firm had agreed to transfer its technology to SK Chemicals.
NT dollar continues to fall
The New Taiwan dollar continued its fall against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.015 to close at a daily low of NT$32.904.
A total of US$636 million changed hands during the day’s trading.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
AI: Softbank’s stake increases in Nvidia and TSMC reflect Masayoshi Son’s effort to gain a foothold in key nodes of the AI value chain, from chip design to data infrastructure Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI). The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed. Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year,
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