TRADE
US partnership sought
Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥), a national policy adviser to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), in Washington on Tuesday said that the nation hopes to foster its “strategic partnership” with the US through investment and trade exchanges. Ho, who is leading a delegation to the Select USA Investment Summit, said that more than 140 representatives from 84 Taiwanese businesses could introduce combined investment of US$34 billion to the US. Ho also expressed hope of a stronger strategic partnership between Taiwan and the US. She said she had discussions with officials — including Matthew Pottinger, senior director for Asian affairs at the US National Security Council — about a variety of issues.
MANUFACTURERS
Yageo to raise prices
Passive component manufacturer Yageo Corp (國巨) is to raise prices for some capacitors by between 15 percent and 30 percent beginning next month in the wake of the persistent shortage of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC). The price hikes are larger than April’s increase of 8 percent to 10 percent, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday. Yageo also told downstream clients that delivery times might be extended from 1.5 months to a maximum of six months, the report said. If the short supply of MLCC persists into the third quarter, Yageo could raise the prices of some or all product lines again, the report said. Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said in a note that the undersupply and capacity expansion of passive components might boost Yageo’s revenue and earnings in the July-to-September quarter.
INVESTMENT
Chinese applications decline
In the first five months of the year, the Investment Commission approved 55 applications by Chinese companies to invest in Taiwan, a year-on-year decline of 17 percent. The total value of the projects was US$144 million, down 6.2 percent year-on-year, according to data released by the commission on Tuesday. Overall, applications by foreign companies to invest in Taiwan dropped 6.39 percent year-on-year to 1,260 in the five-month period, while the overall value of the investments fell 35.2 percent to US$3.31 billion, the statistics showed. Meanwhile, the number of applications approved for Taiwanese firms to invest overseas fell 18.55 percent to 180 in the five-month period from a year earlier, while the value dropped 35.52 percent to US$4.91 billion, the data showed.
REAL ESTATE
New home loans rise
New home loans at five major state-run banks totaled NT$34.37 billion (US$1.128 billion) last month, an increase of NT$5.03 billion from April, but a decrease of NT$6.93 billion from a year earlier, data released by the central bank on Tuesday showed. The monthly tally of new home loans at Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫) is considered a gauge of the local property market, as they account for 40 percent of the market. Property transactions in the six special municipalities declined 13 percent sequentially last month, data from the six governments showed. The average interest rate declined to 1.655 percent last month, down 0.011 percentage points from the previous month, the lowest level since July 2010, data from the central bank showed.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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