COMPUTERS
UBS tempers Asustek view
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday said it has sold more than 500 million motherboard units since 1989, when the company was established, but its shares ended down 4.8 percent amid market concerns about its product transition and weaker emerging market demand. UBS Securities Ltd yesterday downgraded Asustek shares to “neutral” from “buy,” and lowered its price target to NT$330 from NT$360. Asustek closed yesterday at NT$317 in Taipei trading. “We believe the depreciation of the Russian ruble and the euro, and rising sales in the low-margin smartphone business could dilute Asustek’s operating margin. We also believe Asustek could be hurt by potential foreign-exchange losses, due to the depreciation of emerging-market currencies,” UBS said in a note.
PLASTICS
China General sales to rise
As the decline in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) prices began to decelerate this month, while the fall in ethylene prices expanded further due to the plunge in global crude oil prices, China General Plastic Corp (華夏) is likely to increase PVC sales volume and therefore see improving cost competitiveness this quarter, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said on Tuesday. As PVC prices might rise next month in the US, reflecting stronger demand due to low inventory levels, product spread is predicted to expand this quarter, which will help improve China General’s gross margin and profitability, Yuanta said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
ScinoPharm faces pressure
ScinoPharm Taiwan (台灣神隆), which makes active pharmaceutical ingredients, might face heavier pricing pressure on its core oncology products this year, while its key custom manufacturing projects might continue to see inventory adjustments, Deutsche Bank said. The firm’s sales for this year might grow by 2.84 percent to NT$4.56 billion (US$143.44 million) from NT$4.43 billion last year, the bank forecast in a client note on Tuesday. ScinoPharm will also face challenges in controlling its research and development spending this year, as it transits toward vertical integration, meaning potential rising margin pressure going forward, the bank said.
BICYCLES
Giant posts record sales
Taiwan’s largest bicycle maker, Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械), saw a recovery in its own-brand business in Europe last year, while its marketing strategy in China also proved effective, allowing Giant to report stronger-than-expected sales for last year. Consolidated sales rose 19.4 percent year-on-year to NT$14.5 billion in the last quarter, pushing the full-year figure to increase 10.86 percent to NT$60.22 billion, the highest in the company’s history. Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) on Tuesday forecast Giant’s revenue for this year would grow 5.54 percent to NT$63.614 billion from last year, with net profit of NT$4.58 billion, up 15.12 percent year-on-year.
ELECTRONICS
Delta opens Singapore lab
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the nation’s biggest power system supplier, yesterday said it opened the Delta-IBN Life Science and Diagnostics Lab at Singapore’s Biopolis biomedical science park, which aims to develop next-generation infectious disease detection kits through collaboration with the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and local universities.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
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
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
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
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