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.
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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