MANUFACTURING
Sector growth beats average
The overall revenue of listed companies in the manufacturing sector expanded by 5.3 percent annually to NT$14.6 trillion (US$485.5 billion) in the first eight months of this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Statistics said yesterday, citing data provided by the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange. The 5.3 percent growth in the manufacturing sector was stronger than the average increase of 4.8 percent in the combined revenue of all listed companies, the department said in a statement. The expansion in the manufacturing sector was mainly attributed to contract electronics manufacturers and electronic component makers, the department said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
South Korea to top spending
South Korea is expected to retain its top position in semiconductor equipment spending next year, while China is to replace Taiwan as the world’s second-biggest spender, a projection released yesterday by industry association SEMI showed. This year, South Korean semiconductor firms are forecast to spend US$19.5 billion on new equipment, an increase from last year’s US$8.5 billion, as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd increases its spending, SEMI said. Global semiconductor equipment spending is expected to jump 37 percent annually to a record-high US$55 billion this year, and grow 5 percent next year to US$58 billion, SEMI said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Chang Wah to issue shares
Semiconductor materials supplier Chang Wah Technology Co Ltd (長華科技) yesterday said its board has agreed to issue between 5 million and 6 million new shares to back a capital injection. The board has tentatively priced the new shares at between NT$390 and NT$450 per share, and the firm plans to use the proceeds to repay bank loans, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. The company plans to reserve 15 percent of the shares’ subscription rights for employees and 10 percent for the public, with the remainder to be made available to current shareholders, the filing showed.
ENTERTAINMENT
Cayenne Ark to raise funds
Mobile game distributor Cayenne Ark Mobile Co Ltd (辣椒方舟) yesterday said it plans to raise no more than NT$55.58 million through the issuance of new shares on the Taipei Exchange’s Emerging Stock Board, in a bid to replenish operating capital. The Taipei-based company, which has paid-in capital of NT$150 million, priced the new shares at NT$9 each, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. From January through last month, Cayenne Ark, an affiliate of Cayenne Entertainment Technology Co (紅心辣椒), saw revenue plunge 57.79 percent from a year earlier to NT$46.5 million.
FINANCE
Holding firms’ net profit falls
The nation’s 15 financial holding companies reported an aggregate net profit of NT$32.36 billion for last month, down 37 percent from a month earlier, but up 10 percent from the same period last year, a Daiwa Capital Markets Inc client note issued yesterday said, citing the companies’ filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Total net profit of the 15 firms for the first eight months of the year expanded 20 percent annually to NT$219.1 billion, the note said. Banks under the companies appear to have seen more stable earnings streams than their insurance and brokerage affiliates, thanks to moderately improved top lines and reduced provisioning, Daiwa said.
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
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