TECHNOLOGY
King Yuan sales rise 2.42%
IC testing service provider King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電) yesterday reported revenue of NT$3.27 billion (US$118.3 million) for last month, up 2.42 percent month-on-month and 38.07 percent year-on-year. Revenue last quarter increased 6 percent to NT$9.53 billion — a record for the fourth quarter — as the company benefited from increased demand for chips used in 5G, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications. King Yuan’s revenue for the whole of last year rose 16.58 percent to NT$33.76 billion from 2020, also a company record.
CERTIFICATION
Sporton revenue hits record
Sporton International Inc (耕興), which provides professional product testing and certification services, yesterday reported that its revenue last month increased 17.75 percent month-on-month and 30.53 percent year-on-year to a record NT$412.27 million. Sporton said that it attributed the increase to robust demand in Taiwan and the US, as the markets continue to migrate to 5G technology. Revenue in the fourth quarter rose 18.11 percent to NT$1.11 billion from a year earlier, while revenue for the whole of last year reached NT$4.32 billion, up 22.94 percent from 2020, it said.
AIRLINES
CAL announces pay hike
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday said that it would give employees an annual bonus equal to six months’ wages and offer a 4 percent pay increase this year. CAL, the only Taiwanese carrier that made a profit in the first three quarters of last year, posted a net profit of nearly NT$1.56 billion. In the first 11 months of last year, its revenue increased 15.99 percent annually to NT$121.94 billion. The company is expected to continue benefiting from elevated cargo demand and robust air freight rates this year, Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) said in October, after raising its outlook for the airline from “negative” to “stable.”
STEELMAKERS
Yieh Hsing to expand plant
Steelmaker Yieh Hsing Enterprise Co (燁興企業) yesterday said it would invest NT$1.272 billion to expand its plant at the Ping Nan Industrial Park (屏南工業區) in Pingtung County. The capacity of the plant, which supplies steel wires and stainless steel pipes, is expected to expand to 450,000 tonnes per year from 300,000 tonnes, Yieh Hsing said, adding that it plans to complete the expansion in two years. The money would also be used to upgrade facilities and install solar panels as the company seeks to improve the competitiveness of its product line, and comply with policies on energy savings and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, it said in a regulatory filing.
UNITED STATES
Greenback ‘to get stronger’
The US dollar is expected to become stronger in the first half of the year, but face downward pressure in the second half, as capital might leave the US if its fiscal and account deficits persist while economies elsewhere recover, Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) Ltd (渣打國際商業銀行) said on Wednesday. Investors are advised to hold gold positions to hedge against volatility, as Standard Chartered believes virtual assets such as bitcoin are less effective at hedging against volatility, Standard Chartered investment strategy head Allen Liu (劉家豪) said. Cryptocurrencies are more like a special investment, which can hardly replace gold, he said.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
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