AUTOMOBILES
Car sales rise 8.3 percent
The nation’s new passenger car sales rose 8.3 percent last month from a year earlier to 48,000 units, getting off to a strong start this year after total sales of new cars last year rose 12 percent to 423,829 units from 2013. According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications on Monday, Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which sells Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Taiwan, continued to lead the market last month, distributing 15,358 cars, followed by Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), which distributes Nissan and Infiniti cars.
FUTURES
TAIFEX to ease trading limits
The Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX, 期交所) yesterday said that futures trading would soon follow the spot market in allowing larger daily upward and downward fluctuations. The announcement followed the Financial Supervisory Commission’s decision on Tuesday to widen daily share price fluctuations to a maximum of 10 percent from the current 7 percent, starting on Aug. 3. The commission expects the new measure to boost daily turnover by about 10 percent. TAIFEX president Chiu Wen-chang (邱文昌) said the planned changes to the daily trading limits in both the spot and futures market would boost the efficiency of Taiwan’s equity markets and strengthen their liquidity.
TRADE
TAITRA, Buynow team up
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) yesterday said it would work with China-based retail chain Buynow (百腦匯) to promote Taiwanese products in China. TAITRA, the nation’s main trade promotion body, said it plans to open two special pavilions in two large outlets of the Buynow chain — one in Chengdu on May 1 and another in Guangzhou on Aug. 1. The two outlets will boost the number of TAITRA’s product pavilions in China to six this year. Currently, the council operates three similar pavilions in Senao’s (神腦) retail chain and one in the Dennis Department Store (丹尼斯百貨).
BANKING
Cathay Bank picks Line Pay
Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) on Tuesday teamed up with Japan’s Line Corp to introduce new features of a mobile payment service in Taiwan. Line Pay, which is expected to be available in the second quarter, will allow Line users to create virtual bank accounts with Cathay United Bank via mobile phones and transfer money directly to friends within the Line app. Users can also deposit up to NT$10,000 (US$316) on their Line accounts through e-mail verification, or deposit up to NT$100,000 if their Line accounts are integrated with their virtual bank accounts certified by Cathy United Bank.
SEMICONDUCTORS
MediaTek outlook positive
Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) is expected to perform better than expected this quarter, Barclays Capital Securities Corp said in a client note yesterday, citing a positive guidance issued by semiconductor component distributor WPG Holdings Co (大聯大) on Tuesday. Barclays said WPG is the fourth company in Mediatek’s supply chain that has seen unusually strong seasonal demand for 4G smartphones this quarter, following similar optimistic forecasts by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密). Barclays now expects MediaTek’s sales for this quarter to decline by a smaller 5 to 10 percent from last quarter’s NT$55.45 billion.
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Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
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Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
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