FOREX
Reserves rise to US$474bn
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$474.05 billion as of the end of last month, an increase of US$1.58 billion from the figure recorded at the end of the prior month, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. The main factor responsible for the increase was returns from foreign exchange reserves management, the bank said. The market value of securities investment and New Taiwan dollar-denominated deposits held by foreign portfolio investors reached US$423.9 billion, accounting for 89 percent of foreign exchange reserves, it said.
OPTOELECTRONICS
Largan revenue hits record
Handset camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday posted record-high revenue of NT$6.66 billion (US$218.36 million) for last month, surging 66 percent year-on-year. On a monthly basis, revenue rose from NT$6.62 billion, despite CEO Adam Lin’s (林恩平) previous prediction of a slight decline. The Taichung-based company said that 50 to 60 percent of its shipments last month were comprised of 10-megapixel lenses, while 20 to 30 percent of shipments were 20-megapixel lenses. Another 10 to 20 percent of shipments were comprised of 8-megapixel lenses, it added. From January to last month, the company posted a 19 percent year-on-year increase in revenue to NT$55.67 billion.
AUTOMOTIVE
Global PMX shares jump
Shares of Global PMX Co (智伸科), which makes auto parts and medical components, yesterday jumped 3.7 percent in Taipei, outperforming the broader market’s 0.75 percent rise, after the company reported record-high sales for last month. Consolidated revenue increased 13.72 percent year-on-year to NT$460.3 million, the company said on Wednesday, adding that revenue had risen by double-digit percentages for eight months in a row due to steady demand from major clients for its gasoline direct injection and transmission products. In the first 11 months of this year, revenue totaled NT$4.57 billion, up 12.8 percent from a year earlier, the company said, adding that it remains cautiously optimistic about its business for this quarter based on order visibility.
PNEUMATICS
Airtac revenue rises 19%
Pneumatic components supplier Airtac International Group (亞德客) yesterday reported that consolidated revenue last month totaled NT$1.41 billion, up 19 percent month-on-month and 11 percent year-on-year. “Market demand does not seem to have worsened, but has also not found any obvious recovery. Airtac will continue to try to get more market share to support revenue growth by launching new products and approaching new customers,” the company said in a statement. In the first 11 months of the year, cumulative revenue was NT$14.398 billion, flat from the same period last year, Airtac said.
WIRING
BizLink overall revenue falls
Wire harness maker BizLink Holding Inc (貿聯) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of US$62.06 million for last month, a decrease of 1.53 percent from a year earlier. The company said that seasonal factors weighed on its shipment momentum last month, when it saw an increase in industrial wire harness shipments, but slowing shipments of information technology wire harnesses. In the first 11 months, cumulative revenue totaled US$686.6 million, up 6.15 percent from the same period last year, BizLink said in a regulatory filing.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
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