FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Reserves grow US$4.18bn
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves last month were US$488.69 billion, increasing US$4.18 billion from the previous month, the central bank said yesterday. The increase was due to returns from the bank’s management of foreign-exchange reserves, and the appreciation of foreign-exchange reserves denominated in euro and other reserve currencies that appreciated against the US dollar, it said. The bank said it last month intervened to keep order in the nation’s foreign-exchange market after large capital inflows caused excessive volatility. The central bank rediscount rate of 1.125 percent, compared with negative interest rates in major economies, and high dividend payouts by local firms have attracted foreign capital since last month, it said.
MACHINERY
Hiwin monthly revenue rises
Revenue at linear-motion component supplier Hiwin Technologies Co (上銀科技) last month rose 8.06 percent monthly to NT$2.01 billion (US$68 million), but was down 3.49 percent annually, the company said in a regulatory filing yesterday. The figure is the highest in 11 months, bringing the company’s second-quarter revenue to NT$5.62 billion, up 55.49 percent from the first quarter and the highest in four quarters. Cumulative revenue for the first six months fell 17.07 percent annually to NT$9.23 billion, the company said. The machine tool sector this year faces a downcycle, and Hiwin is not positive about this quarter.
AUTO PARTS
BizLink sales slip 9 percent
Wire harness maker BizLink Holding Inc (貿聯控股) yesterday reported that consolidated sales last month decreased 9.06 percent year-on-year to US$59.19 million. Sales still rose 2.93 percent from the previous month, which BizLink attributed to non-Chinese supply chains that continued to resume operations, with momentum in the motor vehicle segment outpacing the electrical appliance segment, a company statement said. In the first six months, cumulative sales reached US$340.56 million, down 8.23 percent from a year earlier. BizLink said that motor vehicle and electrical appliance segments are expected to return to optimal levels from this quarter.
PERIPHERALS
Chicony reports best June
Chicony Power Technology Co (群光電能), which makes computer peripherals, yesterday posted its highest-ever revenue for the month of June, thanks to demand for power supplies used in type-C notebook computers and high-wattage laptops. Consolidated revenue last month rose 4.2 percent month-on-month and 3.2 percent year-on-year to NT$3.07 billion, the company said. Second-quarter revenue rose 37.7 percent quarter-on-quarter and 11.2 percent year-on-year to NT$9.24 billion, it said. Cumulative revenue in the first half of the year reached NT$15.95 billion, up 2.6 percent from a year earlier, it added.
ELECTRONICS
HTC revenue soars 63%
Smartphone developer HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday reported revenue of NT$649.25 million for last month, up 63.55 percent from May and marking the highest monthly revenue this year. The figure was down 55.57 percent from a year earlier. In the second quarter, revenue rose 1.1 percent from the previous quarter to NT$1.34 billion, but was down 52.2 percent from the same period last year. Cumulative revenue from January to last month was NT$2.67 billion, a 53.52 decline percent from a year earlier, a company regulatory filing showed.
OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that its Chinese rival DeepSeek (深度求索) is using unfair and increasingly sophisticated methods to extract results from leading US artificial intelligence (AI) models to train the next generation of its breakthrough R1 chatbot, a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News showed. In the memo, sent on Thursday to the US House of Representatives Select Committee on China, OpenAI said that DeepSeek had used so-called distillation techniques as part of “ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs.” The company said it had detected “new, obfuscated methods” designed to evade OpenAI’s defenses
NEW IMPORTS: Car dealer PG Union Corp said it would consider introducing US-made models such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Stellantis’ RAM 1500 to Taiwan Tesla Taiwan yesterday said that it does not plan to cut its car prices in the wake of Washington and Taipei signing the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade on Thursday to eliminate tariffs on US-made cars. On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan said it is planning to lower the price of its five models imported from the US after the zero tariff comes into effect. Tesla in a statement said it has no plan to adjust the prices of the US-made Model 3, Model S and Model X as tariffs are not the only factor the automaker uses to determine pricing policies. Tesla said
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Australian singer Kylie Minogue says “nothing compares” to performing live, but becoming an international wine magnate in under six years has been quite a thrill for the Spinning Around star. Minogue launched her first own-label wine in 2020 in partnership with celebrity drinks expert Paul Schaafsma, starting with a basic rose but quickly expanding to include sparkling, no-alcohol and premium rose offerings. The actress and singer has since wracked up sales of around 25 million bottles, with her carefully branded products pitched at low-to mid-range prices in dozens of countries. Britain, Australia and the United States are the biggest markets. “Nothing compares to performing
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