ELECTRONICS
Largan, TSMC shares fall
Shares of smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) took a beating yesterday after the company a day earlier reported its gross margin for the second quarter fell 4.45 percentage points to 66.49 percent from a quarter earlier. Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) also came under pressure after it on Wednesday gave lower-than-expected sales guidance of between US$8.12 billion and US$8.22 billion for the third quarter. TSMC said that sales for the second half of this year in US dollar terms are expected to grow 5 percent from the first half. Largan shares fell 3.09 percent to close at NT$5,170, while TSMC lost 0.75 percent to close at NT$213, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
MANUFACTURING
FPG to hold wage talks
Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團), the nation’s largest industrial group, yesterday said it would hold a second round of wage negotiations with its labor union on Monday next week in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) after a first round of talks last month failed to reach an agreement. The union last month demanded that the group increase wages for its employees by about 4.5 percent, but FPG only agreed to a 3.5 percent rise and NT$12,000 in allowances. Last year, the group raised wages for its employees by about 5.48 percent following negotiations with the union, which included a 3.5 percent rise in salaries and NT$12,000 in allowances.
BANKING
Ministry meets chairmen
The Ministry of Finance on Thursday reportedly met with chairmen of three state-owned banks including Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) to discuss the preferential 13 percent savings rate for retired employees. The ministry asked the banks to drop the rate to either 4 percent or 9 percent and assess the possible effects, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported. The ministry also asked the banks to submit reports next month and communicate further with their labor unions, the paper said. However, the two sides appeared to have different views on the subject, it said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
TWi reports on buyback
Generic drugmaker TWi Pharmaceuticals Inc (安成藥) achieved nearly 95 percent of a planned share buyback scheme that ended yesterday. From May 15 to yesterday, TWi repurchased 4.764 million shares on the open market at an average of NT$87.01 per share for a total of about NT$414.52 million (US$13.63 million), it said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. On May 12 TWi said it would buy back up to 5 million shares at between NT$70 and NT$100 per share. The repurchased shares would be canceled, it said.
ECONOMY
Fitch keeps China outlook
Fitch Ratings Ltd yesterday maintained its “A+” rating on China with a “stable” outlook, citing the strength of the nation’s external finances and macroeconomic record. Short-term growth prospects remain favorable, while economic policies have been effective in responding to an array of domestic and external pressures in the past year, Fitch said. Large and rising debt levels across the nonfinancial sector, combined with the low stand-alone credit quality of Fitch-rated banks in the financial system, remain the most significant risk factor for the sovereign rating, it said.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
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