SEMICONDUCTORS
Chip machine maker bullish
Applied Materials Inc gave a bullish forecast for this quarter, boosted by orders from chipmakers rushing to add capacity to meet a flood of demand for their products. Revenue would be about US$5.92 billion in the three-month period ending in July, the Santa Clara, California-based company said in a statement on Thursday. Analysts, on average, estimated US$5.52 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Profit, minus certain items, would be US$1.70 to US$1.82 per share in the fiscal third quarter, the biggest maker of machinery used to produce semiconductors said. That compares with an average estimate of US$1.56. Applied Materials expects the total market for chip factory equipment to grow up to US$70 billion this year. That would further expand next year to bring the two-year total to more than US$160 billion, the company projected.
SOUTH KOREA
Exports surge in first 20 days
As vaccinations allow a broader reopening of major economies, exports gained 53.3 percent in the first 20 days of the month from a year earlier, Korea Customs Service reported yesterday. Average daily shipments increased 59.1 percent in the period, which had half a business day less than a year earlier. The readings were partly boosted by last year’s deep slump, when the COVID-19 pandemic hobbled global trade. As the world seeks a return to normalcy, the nation is seeing a rise in demand for export products beyond its cash cow — memory chips — with sales also growing in vehicles, wireless devices and machinery. Exports to China, its largest overseas market, rose 25.2 percent from May 1 to 20 from a year earlier. Shipments to the US jumped 87.3 percent, while those to the EU and Japan rose 78.1 percent and 30.6 percent respectively.
PORTUGAL
Tourism driving economy
The nation is likely to raise its GDP growth forecast for this year to close to 5 percent as tourists help boost the recovery and Europe’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign advances. The government sees GDP expanding as much as 1 percentage point more than the 4 percent it forecast last month, Minister of Finance Joao Leao said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Lisbon. “We’re actually very optimistic.”The economy shrank 7.6 percent last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the tourism industry and other businesses, the biggest annual contraction since at least 1960. For the nation, which has the third-highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the eurozone, tourism represents about 15 percent of the economy and 9 percent of employment.
CHINA
Millionaires set to double
China would more than double the number of millionaires in the next five years and boost the size of the middle class by almost half, spurring consumption in the economy, HSBC Holdings PLC said. The number of high-net-worth individuals — those with the equivalent of at least 10 million yuan (US$1.56 million) in investable assets — is likely to increase from more than 2 million to 5 million by 2025, it said. The middle class, which numbers about 340 million now based on the narrowest definition, would grow by more than 45 percent to more than 500 million in the period, it said. “An expanding middle class will underpin medium to long-term economic growth, and stronger consumer spending boosts domestic demand, business confidence, and capital expenditure,” HSBC economists led by Qu Hongbin (屈宏斌) wrote in a note yesterday.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
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