ENERGY
CPC hikes LPG, LNG prices
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday announced price hikes for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Effective today, the price of household LPG is to increase by NT$1.6 per kilogram, translating into a NT$32 hike for a 20kg gas cylinder, CPC said. The price of LPG used in cars is to rise by NT$0.9 per liter, it added. The average price of LNG is to rise by 2.99 percent from last month, it said. The price hike translates into an additional cost of NT$9.9 to NT$14.85 for households that use 30m3 to 45m3 of LNG per month respectively, CPC said.
STEELMAKERS
Feng Hsin keeps rebar prices
Feng Hsin Steel Co (豐興鋼鐵) yesterday said it would keep its rebar product prices unchanged at NT$18,900 per tonne this week, after an increase of NT$200 per tonne last week. Its scrap buying prices would also stay unchanged at NT$10,200 per tonne after also rising NT$200 per tonne last week, the company said. The company’s rebar product and scrap purchase prices rose for three consecutive weeks amid steady market demand, Feng Hsin said.
ELECTRONICS
Ichia revenue up 2.36%
Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) yesterday reported a consolidated revenue of NT$731.84 million (US$23.95 million) for last month, up 2.36 percent from August and 5.77 percent from a year earlier. For the first nine months of this year, consolidated revenue totaled NT$5.34 billion, up 1.68 percent annually, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Sales generated from its flexible printed-circuit integrated components reached NT$536 million last month, accounting for 73 percent of total sales, while those of mechanical integrated components were NT$204 million, Ichia said.
ENTERTAINMENT
S.H.E. contracts expire
Record label HIM International Music Inc (華研國際) on Sunday said that its exclusive agency contracts with S.H.E. singers Ella Chen (陳嘉樺), Selina Jen (任家萱) and Hebe Tien (田馥甄) have expired, and that talks about collaboration with the three are under way. Any changes to the contracts would affect its sales and operating expenses, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, adding that the three singers’ agency contracts made up about 29.4 percent of its revenue in the first eight months of this year. The trio’s gross profit made up about 12.6 percent of the company’s total gross profit over the period, HIM said. A new contract’s exact financial impact on its operating profit would have to be calculated, the company said. HIM shares rose 4.39 percent to close at NT$85.6 yesterday.
AUTOMOTIVE
Lexus, VW top expectations
The two car brands that best meet or exceed customer expectations in Taiwan are Lexus and Volkswagen (VW) in the luxury and non-luxury categories respectively, auto market advisory firm J.D. Power said. Lexus scored 843 points to top the sales satisfaction index in the nation’s luxury car market this year, followed by Mercedes-Benz at 840 points and BMW at 827 points, J.D. Power said in its annual report. In the non-luxury category, Volkswagen scored 822 points to claim the top position, followed by Luxgen (811) and Mazda (810), the report showed.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
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