Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and the over-the-counter (OTC) market raked in a record NT$918.1 billion (US$33.1 billion) in the first nine months of this year, the Financial Supervisory Commission said.
The figure represented an increase of NT$545.8 billion, or 146.6 percent, from a year earlier, commission data showed.
It comprises NT$881.4 billion from companies listed on the TWSE and NT$36.7 billion from firms listed on the OTC market, the data showed.
Photo: AP
The growth largely came from logistics service providers, which charged higher freight rates due to a global supply shortage and port congestion, the commission said.
In addition, the electronics industry benefited from international brands’ new device launches, including smartphones, which boosted shipments, especially for the semiconductor industry, it said.
In the first nine months, listed shipping companies’ profit from overseas investments reached NT$294.7 billion, soaring NT$273.2 billion from a year earlier, making the industry the most profitable among all of the sectors that benefited from overseas investments, the data showed.
The semiconductor industry posted an annual increase of NT$49.9 billion, or an almost 200 percent rise in the nine-month period, while other electronics firms posted a NT$47 billion increase in overseas profit for a nearly 100 percent rise, the data showed.
A total of 1,280 listed firms had invested overseas as of the end of the third quarter, accounting for 78 percent of all listed companies, and their total investments had reached NT$7.02 trillion, up NT$205 billion from the end of last year, the commission said.
Most of the increase came after many Taiwanese firms, led by semiconductor suppliers, set up subsidiaries or launched mergers and acquisitions to expand their operations, Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director-General Tsai Li-ling (蔡麗玲) said.
Listed firms investing in China reported a record NT$379.5 billion in total profit in the first nine months, rising NT$102.6 billion from a year earlier, the commission said.
The figure comprises NT$357 billion posted by companies listed on the TWSE and NT$22.5 billion by those listed on the OTC market, the commission said.
The increase reflects solid demand for a wide range of products, such as smartphones, raw materials, and computers and peripheral devices, as well as chemical products, it said.
As of the end of September, 1,202 listed companies had invested in China, accounting for 73.5 percent of the companies listed on local equity markets. They had invested NT$5.4 trillion in China, up NT$18.8 billion from the end of last year, the commission said.
The Chinese market has become part of many listed Taiwanese firms’ global expansion strategies, with the companies increasingly seeing China as a place to raise investment capital, either through the establishment of subsidiaries or mergers and acquisitions, Tsai said.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar