The persisting COVID-19 pandemic would dampen local tech firms’ business outlook for the rest of this year, when benefits from remote learning and teleworking would fade away, Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) said yesterday.
Taiwan Ratings, the local arm of S&P Global Ratings, stood by the forecast that Taiwan’s economy would contract 1.2 percent this year, as it cannot stay above the global recession, although it has reined in the virus outbreak without draconian lockdowns.
“Rush orders for laptops and other devices would dry up in the second half of the year, when relief programs around the world would expire, allowing poor economic fundamentals to set in,” corporate credit analyst Raymond Hsu (許智清) told a media briefing in Taipei.
Virus infections continue to spike in the US, Europe and parts of Asia, dimming the chance of a high sales season for technology products, Hsu said, expecting solid declines in sales of PCs, smartphones, servers and information technology spending this year.
The pandemic and lingering US-China trade tensions force diversification of manufacturing facilities and drive up production costs, Hsu said, referring to Washington’s blacklisting of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
Taiwanese firms on Huawei’s supply chains would also take a hit, but might come out of the woods after gaining new customers, Hsu said.
If Apple Inc takes over Huawei’s market share, local firms would emerge unscathed, as many collaborate with the US technology titan, he added.
However, it would be a different story if Samsung Electronics Co grabs more market share, which would benefit South Korea’s supply chains, Hsu said.
Regardless, the virus crisis is lending support to digitalization and accelerating investment in cloud computing and 5G infrastructure, which would provide the catalyst for a recovery next year, he said.
Local banking institutions could see their return on average assets decline to a 10-year low of 0.3 percent this year due to increasing credit costs, doubled bad loans and lower interest rates, financial credit analyst Serene Hsieh (謝雅瑛) said.
Central banks worldwide have cut interest rates to ward off a credit crunch and asked lenders to support companies affected by the outbreak, squeezing the room for profitability, Hsieh said.
The credit outlook is gloomier for domestic life insurers, as low interest rates would constrain investment yields, foreign-exchange costs would weigh on earnings and negative interest spreads would deteriorate, she said.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
RSS