TAIEX posts moderate gain
The TAIEX opened higher yesterday, bolstered by the strength in overseas markets and held on to a modest gain at the close of trading. However, construction and property stocks remained under pressure because of the government’s tighter measure to curb soaring property prices, dealers said.
The index rose 46.03 points, or 0.53 percent, to close at 8,738.37 on turnover of NT$138.16 billion (US$4.71 billion).
A total of 2,022 stocks closed up, 2,352 finished down and 482 remained unchanged, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Qisda posts flat sales
Electronics contract maker Qisda Corp (佳世達) yesterday reported that consolidated revenue last month reached NT$5.62 billion, flat year-on-year, but down 31 percent from January.
The monthly decline was attributed to fewer working days because of the Lunar New Year holiday, it said in a statement.
Qisda also said fourth-quarter profit rose more than 50 percent to NT$670 million, or earnings per share of NT$0.35. Sales advanced 5.6 percent to NT$24.2 billion.
First-quarter shipments of LCD monitors are projected to decline 5 percent sequentially to 4 million units, while those of projectors could rise about 8 percent to 260,000 units, it said.
Foxconn transforming base
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) is set to transform its factories in southern China into an “engineering base,” while moving about 200,000 jobs to central areas of the country, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
“We will make Shenzhen an engineering campus where we do pilot production only,” Louis Woo (胡國輝), special assistant to group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), was quoted by the paper as saying.
Foxconn employs about 1 million workers in China, about half of them based in Shenzhen.
After the planned changes, Foxconn’s work force in Shenzhen would eventually drop below 300,000, the report cited Woo as saying.
China developing 4G system
China may soon launch a domestically developed “fourth-generation” (4G) mobile phone system for the commercial market, state media reported yesterday, citing leading carrier China Mobile Ltd (中國移動通信).
The homegrown candidate for the 4G standard, known as TD-LTE, is being tested in seven cities and will go into commercial use “when the technology is mature,” China Daily cited China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou (王建宙) as saying. He did not provide any timetable.
China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone operator with 589.3 million subscribers, has developed a Chinese 3G standard called TD-SCDMA. Wang said Apple Inc’s Steve Jobs was interested in developing LTE iPhones.
Ford probing worker abuse
Ford Motor Co was yesterday looking into a graphic report by a human rights group alleging abuse of workers at a Chinese factory.
The accusations came in a report by the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights entitled Dirty Parts: Where Lost Fingers Come Cheap, with a picture on the cover of a mangled hand missing three fingers.
The report accuses Yuwei Plastics and Hardware Product Co in Dongguan of paying its workers US$0.80 per hour and of making them work 14-hour shifts, seven days a week, making auto parts sold to Ford.
Yuan sends NT dollar higher
Pushed by a stronger yuan, the New Taiwan dollar finished NT$0.08 higher against the US dollar yesterday, closing at NT$29.462 on turnover of US$1.098 billion, Taipei Foreign Exchange data showed.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS