AUTO PARTS
Tong Yang profit falls 37%
Citing a weak global automotive market, Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業) yesterday reported that first-quarter pretax income declined 37 percent annually to NT$383 million (US$12.75 million), its lowest level in 19 quarters. Earnings per share were NT$0.73, it said. The company supplies bumpers, grilles and fenders to global brands through the aftermarket channel or as an original equipment manufacturer. Tong Yang said it would continue developing water-based coating and electroplating products to enhance added value, while investing in lightweight auto products.
RETAIL
Pinkoi sales decline 30%
Taipei-based e-commerce start-up Pinkoi.com (果翼科技) yesterday said that online sales fell 30 percent last month compared with February due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, which specializes in original design goods and holds fairs, said that offline sales also fell by more than 50 percent sequentially last quarter. It did not disclose exact sales figures. With more than 16,000 individual brands on its Web site, Pinkoi said it would lower its commissions for orders under US$10, while investing more than US$660,000 in advertising this quarter. The company is launching various workshops and classes as it seeks to boost offline sales for designers.
ELECTRONICS
Silitech reports losses
Handset keypad supplier Silitech Technology Corp (閎暉) yesterday posted net losses of NT$373 million for last month, including NT$363 million in impairment losses and layoff expenses from its Shenzhen-based Xurong plant. Losses per share were NT$6.22, the company said in a regulatory filing. Silitech released the results at the request of the regulator due to an unusual spike in its share price. Its shares closed unchanged at NT$26.7 in Taipei trading yesteday. They have surged 33.83 percent in the past seven sessions, compared with the TAIEX’s 3.06 percent rise over the same period.
MANUFACTURING
Yageo to list GDRs
Yageo Corp is to list global depositary receipts (GDRs) in Luxembourg next week to raise funds to boost its production capacity and repay debts, it said yesterday. Yageo, which makes chip resistors, inductors and multilayer ceramic capacitors, said in a statement that it would issue 12.68 million GDRs on Monday next week, each of which represents five Yageo common shares. The GDRs have been priced at US$51.25 per unit, translating to NT$308.1 per common share, an 8.84 percent discount on Yageo’s closing price of NT$338 on Tuesday. Based on the pricing, Yageo is expected to raise about US$650 million, it said.
BANKING
Banks mull requiring masks
Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) yesterday said that the Bankers Association of the Republic of China (銀行公會) had proposed requiring visitors to bank branches to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The plan requires approval from the Central Epidemic Command Center, Koo said at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee. Most banks take people’s temperature at bank entrances. Koo said the commission would suggest the plan to the center tomorrow and start implementing it at more than 3,000 bank branches next week at the earliest.
The US dollar on Friday rose against the euro, but pared gains late in a session that was muddied by quarter-end trading, while riskier commodity-led currencies fell sharply after European inflation hit a record high and US consumer spending increased faster than expected. Although the dollar index was showing its biggest quarterly gain since the first quarter 2015, but was registered its first weekly decline in three weeks. Sterling rose against the dollar after falling earlier in the day. The pound last showed four straight sessions of gains followed by wild declines on concerns about Britain’s plan to slash taxes and pay
SAMSUNG DISTANT SECOND: Top local chip fims served nearly two-thirds of the global market in Q2, while Samsung kept South Korea competitive with its 16.5 percent share Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remained the world’s largest contract chipmaker in the second quarter of the year with a 53.4 percent share of the global pure-play foundry market, the Taipei-based market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a research report on Tuesday. Despite TSMC’s market share dipping slightly from 53.6 percent in the first quarter, it was still far ahead of its rivals, TrendForce said. TSMC continued to benefit from emerging technologies, such as high-performance computing devices, the Internet of Things and automotive electronics, as it posted US$18.15 billion in sales in the second quarter, up 3.5 percent
Moderna Inc has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its COVID-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale in the country, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company turned down China’s request to disclose the formula for its mRNA vaccine because of commercial and safety concerns, the newspaper said, citing people involved in negotiations that took place from 2020 to last year, adding that the vaccine maker is still “eager” to sell the product to China. The company had “given up”
PRICE POINT: While overall demand has lagged expectations, higher-priced iPhone 14 Pro models appear to attract more attention than entry-level versions, sources said Apple Inc is backing off plans to increase production of its new iPhones this year after an anticipated surge in demand failed to materialize, people familiar with the matter said. The Cupertino, California-based company has told suppliers to pull back from efforts to increase assembly of the iPhone 14 product family by as many as 6 million units in the second half of this year, said the people, asking not to be named as the plans are not public. Instead, the company would aim to produce 90 million handsets for the period, about the same level as in the second half
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