BANKING
Investors cut yuan holdings
The nation’s yuan deposits fell to the lowest level in 14 months as investors cut yuan holdings for fear of a slowdown in China’s economy and potential debt defaults in Chinese corporations, according to the latest central bank data. Yuan deposits declined for a second consecutive month to 314.32 billion yuan (US$48.56 billion) last month, a reduction of 2.5 billion yuan, or 0.79 percent from February, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. Yuan deposits at lenders’ domestic banking units (DBU) totaled 272.86 billion yuan last month, falling by 1.17 billion yuan from February, the central bank said. Yuan deposits at lenders’ offshore banking units (OBU) reached 41.46 billion yuan, down 1.34 billion yuan from the previous month, the central bank said. However, remittances hit 132.09 billion yuan last month, up 25.33 percent from February, when yuan activity tends to be lower, as the Lunar New Year holiday reduced the number of working days, the central bank said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Materials markets is biggest
The nation is expected to retain the world’s largest semiconductor material market this year, although sales in Taiwan contracted by 2 percent last year, a global industry association said yesterday. Last year, sales of semiconductor materials in Taiwan amounted to US$9.41 billion, down from US$9.6 billion in the previous year, Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) said in a statement. However, sales in South Korea rose 2 percent to US$7.16 billion and those in China also increased 2 percent to US$6.12 billion, SEMI said. The total sales of the global semiconductor material market declined 1.5 percent last year from the previous year to US$43.4 billion, it said.
SCOOTERS
Gogoro has 92% share
Electric scooter vendor Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) on Thursday said its market share for electric scooters in the greater Taipei area reached 92 percent last month, and that it is planning on tapping into another city in Taiwan in the middle of this year. The company declined to say which city, as it is still under discussion. However, Gogoro said its existing partners, such as 7-Eleven and Hi-Life convenience stores would continue providing spaces for its battery-swapping stations in the new city. At present, Gogoro operates 12 brick-and-mortar stores and 175 battery-swapping stations in Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu. The company sold 1,884 scooters in the first quarter, compared with 765 units of China Motor Corp’s (中華汽車) E-moving 100 electric scooters.
FOOTWEAR
Pou Chen revenue up 7.7%
Footwear manufacturer Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業) this week said its revenue rose 7.7 percent annually to NT$22.69 billion last month, boosting the company’s cumulative revenue for the first quarter to increase 8.3 percent to NT$67.44 billion from NT$62.27 billion in the same quarter a year ago. The company attributed the strong quarterly increase mainly to higher contribution from its subsidiary — Hong-Kong-listed Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd (裕元工業). Yue Yuen, in which Pou Chen owns a 49.98 percent stake, reported revenue last quarter rose 3.1 percent annually to US$2.03 billion from US$1.97 billion on the back of sales growth in its shoe manufacturing and distribution business, Pou Chen said in a statement issued on Monday.
INVENTORY DOUBLED: Key parts have backed up in warehouses, halting notebook production, as Acer’s CEO said that a gradual reopening would not solve the problem PC vendor Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said that lockdowns in China to control COVID-19 upended key component supply and disrupted PC production, although chip shortages have been improving. While chip supply constraints largely eased in the first quarter, the company faces uneven supplies of key components due to COVID-19 restrictions in China, Acer chairman and CEO Jason Chen (陳俊聖) told an online news conference. “Semiconductor shortage was the biggest problem in the first half of last year,” Chen said. “Now, we are beset by a supply chain issue caused by China's lockdowns.” With key components unable to be delivered and backing up in
MORE THAN BUZZ: The chip designer said it has received numerous orders from automakers to supply 5G modem chips, as it works to expand beyond smartphones MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it would ship the first 5G chips for vehicles to customers in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of the year, as it moves to expand the reach of its 5G chips beyond smartphones. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said it has been developing 5G chips for connected vehicles over the past few years, targeting applications such as telematics and in-vehicle information systems. “We are seeing demand for 5G technology from numerous makers of connected cars, including electric vehicle makers. We have obtained numerous orders from automakers to supply 5G modem chips with highly integrated features,” J.C. Hsu
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技) yesterday said it would further expand capacity to cope with robust demand for e-paper displays used in e-readers, e-notes and electronic shelf labels, as the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation have not dampened consumer demand. Although rising inflation is weakening companies’ purchasing power, E Ink said that its customers have not scaled down orders for e-paper displays used in e-readers. “Reading is still the most affordable leisure activity that people have,” E Ink CEO Johnson Lee (李政昊) told an online investors’ conference in Taipei. As e-books are less expensive than paper books, “we have so far not seen
Covestro Taiwan Ltd (台灣科思創) yesterday launched a new research and development center that is to specialize in resin synthesis and fiberoptic coating after its parent company, Covestro AG, acquired a resins business from Royal DSM, it said. The German company in September 2020 agreed to buy the resins and functional materials business from Royal DSM for about 1.61 billion euros (US$1.69 billion), corporate data showed. The Dutch company’s local units, such as Covestro Resins (ROA) Ltd (帝昇) and Covestro Resins (Taiwan) Ltd (新力美), are next month to be integrated into Covestro Taiwan Ltd, with their employees continuing resins development, Covestro Taiwan said. The
RSS