MANAGEMENT
TFCC chair quitting
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) yesterday confirmed that Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFCC, 台北金融大樓) chairwoman Christina Sung (宋文琪) had expressed her intention to leave her post as soon as Dec. 6 due to personal reasons. Chang said the government is looking for a suitable candidate to take over management of Taipei 101. Candidates must be skilled in foreign languages, public relations and management, he said, adding that such a candidate is hard to find.
ELECTRONICS
Yageo expects slowdown
Yageo Corp (國巨), the nation’s largest passive components manufacturer, yesterday said it expects demand this quarter to be affected by a seasonal slowdown. The company reported a 70 percent sequential increase in net income to NT$1.23 billion (US$37.7 million), or NT$1.86 per share, last quarter. Yageo attributed the rise to non-operating gains of NT$623 million — including an investment gain of NT$60 million, interest income of NT$53 million and foreign exchange gains of NT$218 million. Cumulative net income in the first three quarters of the year reached NT$2.89 billion, or earnings per share of NT$4.32, Yageo said.
Gaming
X-Legend back in black
Online game publisher X-Legend Entertainment Co (傳奇網路) yesterday said it swung into profit last quarter, bolstered by robust sales of new products and better operating expense control. Net income was NT$48 million last quarter, or earnings per share of NT$0.43, the company said. That compares with a net loss per share of NT$0.51 in the second quarter. In the first 10 months of the year, revenue totaled N$97.61 billion, down 17 percent year-on-year, the company said.
MANUFACTURING
St Shine makes forex gains
Contact lens supplier St Shine Optical Co (精華光學) on Tuesday reported a third-quarter profit of NT$471 million, up 41.7 percent year-on-year, due to better-than-expected foreign exchange gains of NT$130 million. Earnings per share were NT$9.35 last quarter, while gross margin recovered to 36.4 percent and operating margin increased to 27.5 percent on the back of a rising utilization rate and stronger order flow from Japan and Taiwan.Daiwa Capital Markets in a client note forecast that St Shine’s sales would grow 7.4 percent year-on-year this year, while net profit would drop 10.7 percent mainly due to a shrinking gross margin.
ELECTRONICS
HTC sales improve slightly
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday reported sales of NT$8.95 billion (US$274.62 million) for last month, down 43.2 percent from last year’s NT$15.75 billion, but up 26.05 percent from NT$7.1 billion in the prior month, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. HTC on Friday last week said its sales and earnings for this quarter would show incremental improvement from last quarter, thanks to the launch of its latest flagship model and an ongoing financial restructuring.
ELECTRONICS
Acer predicts subsidy boost
Acer Inc (宏碁) is optimistic that its smartphone sales in Taiwan would rise at least 25 percent to more than 100,000 units next year from this year’s 80,000, Acer Taiwan operations president Towny Huang (黃鐘鋒) said yesterday. The company’s smartphone business is expected to benefit from the government’s recent announcement of a subsidy for consumers upgrading from 2G phones to 4G smartphones. About 1 million people still use 2G phones in the nation, Huang said.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such