SEMICONDUCTORS
FTC approves Hermes sale
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday approved Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding NV’s acquisition of Hermes Microvision Inc (漢微科), saying the deal is unlikely to hurt competition. Hermes Microvision said it still expected the acquisition to be finalized by the end of the fourth quarter this year. Having received the nod from the commission, the deal now requires regulatory approval from the Investment Commission and authorities in the US, South Korea and Singapore.
MACROECONOMICS
M1B, M2 growth accelerates
The monthly growth rates of monetary aggregates M1B and M2 last month rose 0.68 percent and 0.54 percent respectively, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. The annual growth rate of M1B, a narrow measure of the amount of money in circulation, last month rose 6.24 percent from the same period last year. The annual growth rate of the broader M2 monetary measurement — which includes M1B, time deposits, foreign currency deposits and mutual funds — increased to 4.7 percent, mainly because of net foreign capital inflows and faster growth in foreign currency deposits, the central bank said. For the first seven months of the year, the average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 were 6.32 percent and 4.79 percent respectively, it said.
BANKING
Mortgage rates hit new low
The home mortgage rates of five major banks last month hit a new six-year low following four central bank interest rate cuts over the past year, according to data released by the government on Tuesday. The average interest rate for new housing loans offered by the five major lenders — Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) — last month fell to 1.695 percent, the lowest since August 2010, despite an increase of NT$1.28 billion (US$40.3 million) in housing loans from June, data showed.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Book-to-bill rises to 1.05%
The book-to-bill ratio for North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers increased from 1 in June to 1.05 last month, statistics released yesterday by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International showed. A ratio of 1.05 means that US$105 worth of orders were received for every US$100 of products billed in the month. It was the eighth consecutive month that the ratio stood at or above 1 percent, which implies a more optimistic outlook. “Monthly bookings and billings have reached US$1.7 billion on average over the past three months,” SEMI Taiwan president Terry Tsao (曹世綸) said in a statement. “The recent data indicate that strong investments in 3D NAND and in China will continue in the short term.”
MACROECONOMICS
DBS still bullish on growth
DBS Group Holdings Ltd yesterday said that weaker-than-expected economic data last month, such as export orders and industrial production, did not alter its view that Taiwan’s economy is growing, as seasonally adjusted monthly figures still indicated increases for both orders and production, while the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index is in expansionary territory. However, the momentum of growth recovery is undeniably weak and signs of recovery in the electronics sector are not very apparent, DBS said in a report. GDP is expected to grow 0.9 percent this year and 1.8 percent next year, it said.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
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