EQUITIES
Foreigners net sold NT$24bn
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$24.06 billion (US$867.9 million) of local shares after buying a net NT$4.5 billion the previous week, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were China Steel Corp (中鋼), AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), while the top three bought were USI Corp (台灣聚合化學品), HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) and Innolux Corp (群創光電), the exchange said. As of Friday last week, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$23.17 trillion, or 44.04 percent of total market capitalization, NT$46.23 billion lower than the previous week, it said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
SEMI show in December
The annual SEMI Taiwan trade show, which normally takes place in September, has this year been rescheduled to Dec. 28 through Dec. 30, due to a local COVID-19 outbreak, the event’s organizer said yesterday. The show is to take place at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1, it said. About 550 companies are registered to showcase their most advanced technologies in 2,000 booths, SEMI Taiwan said. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) and Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) are among the participants, SEMI Taiwan said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Hon Young’s plan approved
The Ministry of Science and Technology yesterday approved Hon Young Semiconductor Corp’s (鴻揚半導體) application to invest in the Hsinchu Science Park (竹科新竹園區). Hon Young is a wholly owned semiconductor unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) focusing on the development of new-generation silicon carbide chips, microelectromechanical systems and silicon-related products, such as ultra-high voltage and power management ICs. It plans to invest NT$3.76 billion in the park to develop next-generation chip technology and help establish a local supply chain, the ministry said.
TECHNOLOGY
WEF expands lighthouse
The World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday announced the addition of 21 new sites to its Global Lighthouse Network, which is a community of world-leading manufacturing facilities and value chains using the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution” technologies to increase efficiency and productivity, in tandem with environmental stewardship. Taiwanese LCD panel makers AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) and Innolux Corp (群創光電), as well as electronics manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), are among the new entries to WEF’s lighthouse designation, a press release said.
PROPERTY
Evergrande saga costly
China would seek to avoid social and financial instability stemming from the resolution of cash-strapped developer Evergrande Group’s (恆大集團) troubles, but the economic costs could be large, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report yesterday. While Chinese authorities would try to protect “the company’s home-buyers, suppliers and contractors,” Evergrande’s “financial strife could restrict funding access for property companies and Chinese issuers, damage the asset quality of certain banks, and disrupt the real estate market,” Moody’s managing director and Asia-Pacific chief credit officer Michael Taylor said in the report.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
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