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.
INCOMING FIX: While a date for updates has not been given, Apple said that the latest overheating incidents might be the result of apps and account data transfers Apple Inc on Saturday said that recent claims of new iPhones getting too hot to the touch are due to software and app-related bugs, and that fixes are coming soon. The company said the device can get warm in the first few days as it works overtime to get set up and restore a user’s data, due to a bug in the latest iOS 17 software, and because of some third-party apps overloading the system. Apple told Bloomberg it is working with developers behind the apps causing the iPhone to overheat and that fixes are in the process of being released.
MODERATING: A Caixin Insight analyst said China’s macroeconomy is recovering, albeit at a slow pace, but private businesses and exporters are still under pressure A private gauge of China’s manufacturing activity slowed its pace of expansion last month, suggesting there is still room for caution as the nation charts its economic trajectory for the rest of the year. The Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) was 50.6 last month, Caixin and S&P Global said in a statement yesterday — dipping closer to the 50 line, below which indicates contraction from the month before. Caixin’s services index was 50.2 for the month, still in expansion but also suggesting that the pace of growth in activity is losing momentum. The figures show a slightly precarious recovery even
US-based tech giant Google said yesterday that its efforts to build four underseas cables to connect Taiwan with the world had created more than 64,000 jobs and generated about US$26 billion in GDP for Taiwan as of 2021. The US company has transformed Taiwan into a strategic cloud infrastructure hub in the world. The four undersea cables are part of the company’s investments in cloud infrastructure in Taiwan, and on the back of the undersea cables, a data center and a Google Cloud Region, which is a geographic area in which Google provides infrastructure and services for deploying applications, Google said in
Micron Technology Inc on Wednesday predicted a steeper loss than anticipated in the current quarter, indicating that an industry slump is still weighing on the largest US maker of memory chips. The company projected a fiscal first-quarter loss of as much as US$1.14 a share, excluding some items. Analysts had estimated a US$0.96 loss. On the bright side, revenue is expected to start recovering in the period. Micron predicted sales of US$4.2 billion to US$4.6 billion, compared with an estimate of US$4.21 billion. For Micron and competitors Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc, this year has been brutal. Customers in their
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