MICROECONOMICS
Foreign reserves hit high
The nation’s foreign-exchange reserves as of the end of last month hit a new high for the 12th consecutive month, largely on the back of an increase in returns on funds managed by the central bank from a month earlier. However, the euro’s depreciation against the US dollar offset the effects of higher investment returns to slow the monthly growth in the foreign reserves, the bank said on Tuesday. As of the end of last month, foreign reserves stood at US$457.19 billion, up US$467 million from the end of February. The growth was shy of a month-on-month rise of US$997 million in February, central bank data showed.
ELECTRONICS
Ichia revenue up 63 percent
Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) on Tuesday posted revenue of NT$614 million (US$21 million) for last month, up 9 percent from a year ago and 63 percent from the previous month. The company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that last month’s revenue included about NT$488 million in sales of flexible printed circuit integrated components and about NT$131 million from mechanical integrated components. The company said its first-quarter revenue expanded 8 percent year-on-year to NT$1.59 billion, driven mostly by flexible printed circuit boards used in mobile devices and automotive parts.
SOLAR
GET sales down 9 percent
Green Energy Technology Inc (GET, 綠能科技), the nation’s largest solar wafer maker, on Tuesday reported sales of NT$851 million last month, up 5.8 percent month-on-month, but down 9 percent year-on-year. In the first quarter, sales totaled NT$2.62 billion, down 23.4 percent quarterly and 0.28 percent annually, it said in a statement. “In spite of concerns over industry trading barriers, pricing in the solar supply-chain is stabilizing. GET’s in-house capacity utilization was about 90 percent last month,” it said. The company plans to speed up module development with support from its parent company, Tatung Group (大同), to extend its downstream business in global high-end markets, it said.
AVIATION
Mandarin launch new route
Mandarin Airlines (華信航空) on Monday announced that it would start flying between Taichung and Tokyo in June, the first airline to fly the route. The airline is to offer a daily flight from June 14, with the outbound flight departing from Taichung International Airport at 7:30am and arriving at Narita Interntiaonal Airport at noon. Flights from Japan are to take off at 1pm and arrive in Taichung at 3:50pm, said the airline, a subsidiary of China Airlines Ltd (中華航空).
E-COMMERCE
Momo to distribute dividend
TV and online retailer Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) has proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$8 per share, representing a payout ratio of 88.2 percent based on last year’s earnings per share (EPS) of NT$9.07. The company said it expects strengthening sales momentum for this year, after combined sales in the first two months this year grew 36.6 percent annually to NT$6.94 billion. Meanwhile, Eastern Home Shopping & Leisure Co (EHS, 東森購物) plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4 per share, based on EPS of NT$3.2 last year. In the first two months of this year, it posted sales of NT$2.34 billion and EPS of NT$0.9, EHS said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
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