SERVICES
Sentiment index gains
The service sector showed signs of improvement in March, with an index gauging industry sentiment indicating accelerated momentum, according to a survey conducted by the Commerce Development Research Institute. The survey showed that the index rose to 104, up 1 point from a month earlier, the Taipei-based think tank said in a statement on Friday. The institute said the index could show steady growth for last month as the sector continues to benefit from rising consumption resulting from continued outbound sales growth.
SMARTPHONES
HTC revenue down
HTC Corp (宏達電) on Friday reported consolidated revenue of NT$4.71 billion (US$156 million) for last month, down 18.03 percent year-on-year and 9.4 percent month-on-month as demand for its smartphones remained weak. During the first four months of the year, HTC’s revenue totaled NT$19.24 billion, down 6.5 percent from a year earlier, the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. HTC is forecast to remain in the red for the first quarter. It is to release its financial results tomorrow. Net losses for last year totaled NT$10.56 billion.
FREIGHT
T3EX income up by 367.1%
Freight forwarder and logistics operator T3EX Global Holdings Corp (台驊國際投資控股) reported its net income surged 367.1 percent year-on-year to NT$29.59 million in the first quarter, with earnings per share of NT$0.27. It attributed the increase to rising air and sea freight sales amid a gradual global economic recovery, as well as a better customer mix and improving operational efficiency. T3EX said it is upbeat about sales, as global trade is expected to continue to improve from last year.
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
NO BREAKTHROUGH? More substantial ‘deliverables,’ such as tariff reductions, would likely be saved for a meeting between Trump and Xi later this year, a trade expert said China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector on Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok. China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog integrated circuits (ICs) imported from the US. The investigation is to target some commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments Inc and ON Semiconductor Corp. The ministry also announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector. US measures such as export curbs and tariffs
The US on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired US chipmaking equipment for China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), including them among 32 entities that were added to the US Department of Commerce’s restricted trade list, a US government posting showed. Twenty-three of the 32 are in China. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co (吉姆西半導體科技) and Jicun Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co (吉存半導體科技) were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp (中芯北方積體電路) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp (中芯北京), the US Federal Register posting said. The
India’s ban of online money-based games could drive addicts to unregulated apps and offshore platforms that pose new financial and social risks, fantasy-sports gaming experts say. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned real-money online games late last month, citing financial losses and addiction, leading to a shutdown of many apps offering paid fantasy cricket, rummy and poker games. “Many will move to offshore platforms, because of the addictive nature — they will find alternate means to get that dopamine hit,” said Viren Hemrajani, a Mumbai-based fantasy cricket analyst. “It [also] leads to fraud and scams, because everything is now
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