ELECTRONICS
Young Fast loses NT$902m
Touchpanel maker Young Fast Optoelectronics Co (洋華光電), which counts Samsung Electronics Co as its top client, posted a bigger quarterly loss of NT$902 million (US$28.86 million) for last quarter after booking an asset loss of NT$682 million. The company lost NT$429 million in the third quarter of last year. That brought the company’s total loss last year to NT$1.81 billion, deepening from a loss of NT$1.63 billion in 2012. Young Fast posted a loss for a third straight year last year. Company chairman Albert Pai (白志強) told investors yesterday that this year would be another difficult period for the company because of an ongoing price decline. The company will continue to cut costs by streamlining its workforce.
STEEL
EU imposes tariffs
The EU has imposed tariffs as high as 25.2 percent on stainless steel from China and Taiwan to curb competition for EU producers, such as Acerinox SA and Outokumpu Oyj. The duties punish Chinese and Taiwanese exporters of cold-rolled flat products for allegedly selling them in the EU’s 5.5 billion euro (US$6 billion) market below cost, a practice known as dumping. This kind of steel is used in everything from elevators and tanks to boilers and kitchen equipment. EU producers that also include Acciai Speciali Terni SpA and Aperam suffered “material injury” as a result of dumped imports from China and Taiwan, the European Commission, the 28-nation EU’s trade authority in Brussels, said yesterday in the Official Journal. The levies, which take effect today, are for six months and may be extended for five years.
TRADE
Cross-strait talks next week
The 10th round of the cross-strait trade in goods talks will be held starting on Tuesday next week at the earliest in China, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Given that Beijing and Seoul have initiated their free-trade pact, Taiwan will work on getting more favorable tax treatments than South Korea from Beijing during the three-day talks, Vice Minister Bill Cho (卓士昭) told a press conference. Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮) will lead Taiwan’s negotiation team, while Bejing’s team is likely to again be led by Chen Xing (陳星), head of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, the ministry said.
ECONOMY
Money supply increasing
The nation’s money supply increased year-on-year last month with the broad gauge advancing faster than the narrow indicator, extending the so-called “death cross,” the central bank said yesterday. The broad M2 money supply gained 6.51 percent year-on-year last month, while the narrow money supply reading of M1B rose by 6.12 percent, ending six months of slowdown, the bank said. The bank dismissed concerns of a possible liquidity crunch, citing net foreign fund inflows for the past two months.
SMARTPHONES
Apple leads Taiwan’s market
Apple Inc led Taiwan’s smartphone market in sales volume and sales value, and had the best-selling single model for the fifth consecutive month last month, according to statistics released yesterday by industry sources. A total of 771,000 smartphones were sold in Taiwan last month, down 3.4 percent from a month earlier, the figures showed.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS