COMPUTERS
Asustek sales climb 5.07%
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) yesterday posted sales of NT$30.64 billion (US$980.48 million) for last month, an increase of 5.07 percent year-on-year, as business slowly regained momentum due to peak season demand. The company said it plans to reinforce its product innovation and business management as it expects further growth in the upcoming months. In the first eight months of the year, cumulative sales dropped 4.82 percent year-on-year to NT$216.27 billion.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Vanguard revenue slumps
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), which supplies driver ICs for flat panels and power management chips, yesterday posted revenue of NT$7.29 billion for last month, a decrease of 8.03 percent month-on-month. Vanguard chief financial officer Amanda Huang (黃惠蘭) attributed the decline to lower wafer shipments. On an annual basis, revenue fell 12.28 percent. Separately, contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) posted a 4 percent month-on-month decline in revenue to NT$13.18 billion. That was flat from a year earlier.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
CTBC profit soars 107%
CTBC Financial Holding Co’s (中信金控) net profit rose 107 percent year-on-year last month, thanks to higher investment returns on stocks and bonds, while its banking arm also expanded, spokeswoman Chiu Ya-ling (邱雅玲) said yesterday. E.Sun Financial Holding Co’s (玉山金控) net profit increased 58 percent year-on-year due to growing financial technology and cross border payment services, while SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) said its net profit grew 25 percent last month due stable banking business.
AVIATION
AIDC denies supplying door
Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空) yesterday said that it did not manufacture the door blown out in Boeing Co’s high-pressure stress test for its new wide-body 777X aircraft on Thursday last week. AIDC only provides pressurized doors for Boeing 737 and 747 jets, and so far has not discussed supplying components for the 777X, general manager Ma Wan-june (馬萬鈞) said by telephone. “While the failure of the door has caught the attention of the media, we think it is normal for there to be failures in tests,” Ma said.
SHOEMAKERS
Demand boosts Fulgent Sun
Fulgent Sun International Holding Co (鈺齊國際) yesterday posted revenue of NT$1.16 million for last month, an increase of 36.11 percent year-on-year, but a 16.13 percent fall month-on-month. Cumulative revenue in the first eight months grew 25.51 percent year-on-year to a record NT$8.48 billion on the back of strong demand in the US, as well as European and Asian markets, the company said.
APPAREL
Orders boost Quang Viet
Down jacket and garment maker Quang Viet Enterprise Co (廣越企業) posted sales of NT$2.26 billion last month, an increase of 7.9 percent month-on-month and 2.41 percent year-on-year, while cumulative revenue in the first eight months soared 33.64 percent to NT$10.71 billion. “Major clients such as Patagonia, Adidas AG, Nike Inc and The North Face Inc have placed more orders this year,” a company official said by telephone yesterday. The firm’s top five clients have decided to hasten the pace of their expansion in the next two years, which would help boost sales, the official said.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
Tax revenue from securities transactions last month increased 41.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$30.3 billion (US$975.8 million), rising on an annual basis for the third consecutive month and marking the highest for the month of October as Taiwanese stocks continued to perform strongly, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed yesterday. Last month, the TAIEX surged 2,412.81 points, or 9.34 percent, marking its largest-ever monthly rise for October as market sentiment was buoyed by a nearly 15 percent gain in contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which accounts for more than 40 percent of the
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