STOCK MARKET
Yearly revenue falls
Listed companies’ total consolidated revenue fell by 4.23 percent year-on-year to NT$2.184 trillion (US$66.77 billion) last month, according to a statement by the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp yesterday. The decline in last month’s sales was attributed to weakening performance of the construction, steel and oil and gas industries. However, in the first eight months of the year, listed companies’ total sales were NT$17.88 trillion, up by 0.14 percent year-on-year.
TEXTILES
Makalot income skyrockets
Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽) yesterday said pre-tax income for the first eight months of the year rose by 30.21 percent year-on-year to NT$1.79 billion, or NT$9.04 per share, the highest in the company’s history. Consolidated sales rose by 14.02 percent from a year earlier to NT$15.11 billion in the eight-month period. Analysts said the company’s pre-tax profit grew faster than its sales in the period, pointing to the increasing contribution from functional sportswear and rush orders.
MEDIA
Eastern Media shares surge
Shares of Eastern Media International Corp (東森國際) yesterday surged by 9.87 percent, outranking the broader market’s 0.45 percent increase, amid speculation that the Carlyle Group LP is preparing to sell its stakes in Eastern Broadcasting Co (東森電視) for NT$30.5 billion. Eastern Media, which owns an about 21.32 percent stake of Eastern Broadcasting, last month confirmed it was selling its stake along with Carlyle. Eastern Media yesterday said that the company has no information about potential buyers nor the price offering.
AUTOMAKERS
Regulators fine joint venture
A Nissan joint venture has been fined 123 million yuan (US$19.3 million) by Chinese regulators on price-fixing charges in a long-running probe of the auto industry that has snared global automakers. Dongfeng Nissan Auto Sales Co (東風日產汽車銷售) violated China’s anti- monopoly law by improperly enforcing minimum prices, according to Guandong Province’s economic planning agency. The company is a joint venture between Nissan Motor Co and Dongfeng Motor Co (東風汽車), one of China’s biggest automakers.
TRADE
Cabinet passes trade rules
The Executive Yuan on Thursday approved a set of regulations to expedite the nation’s trade liberalization, Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) said. Under the regulations, enterprises and workers hurt by market liberalizations due to the potential legislative approval of trade-in-services and trade-in-goods agreements can apply for government assistance, Deng said, adding that the government is to set up a NT$100 billion development fund to provide financial subsidies to those affected. The regulations and rules are to be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review, Deng said.
ELECTRONICS
Huawei to improve tablets
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) is not planning to launch bigger tablets such as Apple Inc’s new iPad Pro, which comes with a 12.9-inch screen. Instead, the Chinese telecom equipment maker is to focus on 10-inch tablets with improved screen quality and smaller models of 7 to 8 inches with better portability, Vincent Hsu (許崇德), device business vice president of sales at Xunwei Technologies Co (訊威), Huawei’s exclusive sales agent in Taiwan, said on Thursday.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
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