EQUITIES
G20 woes weigh on shares
Taiwanese shares yesterday moved lower on thin turnover as investors remained cautious ahead of the G20 summit this week in Japan, where US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) are expected to meet amid trade frictions between the two countries. Selling focused on the bellwether electronics sector, led by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), as old economy and financial stocks also weakened to drag the broader market lower, dealers said. The TAIEX ended down 72.75 points, or 0.67 percent, at 10,706.72 points, on turnover of NT$99.63 billion (US$3.2 billion), the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$1.999 billion of shares, it said.
GOVERNMENT
Survey, university ink MOU
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Central Geological Survey yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with National Chung Cheng University to establish a partnership on geological studies, exhibitions and scientific education in remembrance of the 921 Earthquake 20 years ago. The survey said it is looking to reinforce cooperation between the agency and academic institutions to broaden the application of geological studies. The university is in Chiayi County, which experienced the 1906 Meishan earthquake and has since established a research center and museum.
STEELMAKERS
China Steel sales down
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) on Monday said that sales and profit last month declined as steel shipments dropped by 27,000 tonnes from April. Consolidated revenue decreased 2 percent monthly to NT$32.37 billion, while operating income and pretax income fell 27 percent and 23 percent to NT$1.79 billion and NT$1.71 billion respectively, the company said. Cumulative revenue from January to last month grew 1 percent to NT$161.76 billion, compared with NT$160.33 billion in the same period last year. However, cumulative operating income dropped 16 percent to NT$9.5 billion and pretax profit decreased 15 percent to NT$9.06 billion, it said.
BIKEMAKERS
Giant approves dividend plan
Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) shareholders on Friday approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4.6 per share based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$7.64, representing a payout ratio of 60.21 percent. They also approved a plan to list Giant Light Metal Technology (Kunshan) Co (捷安特輕合金科技) as Chinese yuan-denominated A-shares. The unit manufactures finished and semi-finished aluminum industrial products.
TECHNOLOGY
CRM expenditures up 15.6%
Global customer relationship management (CRM)-related software expenditures last year reached US$48.2 billion, up 15.6 percent annually, Gartner Inc said in a report yesterday. The category constitutes the fastest-growing domain in which companies has chosen to invest, Gartner said. Taiwanese firms have spent NT$1.8 billion on CRM software, with Adobe Inc, SAP SE, Oracle Corp, Cisco Systems Inc and Salesforce.com Inc making up the top five software firms, taking more than 40 percent of the market share, Gartner said. Microsoft Corp last year moved up to fifth place, replacing Genesys Inc, Gartner added. Nearly one-quarter of software firms’ total revenue comes from CRM products, it 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
RSS