EQUITIES
US rally spurs investors
Shares in Taiwan yesterday staged a rebound as investors were encouraged by an overnight rally in semiconductor stocks on US markets and focused on the bellwether electronics sector, dealers said. Buying also extended to old economy stocks, especially in the shipping and commodities sectors, as China began easing COVID-19 lockdowns in major cities, leading to hopes of improved demand, they said. The TAIEX closed up 94.53 points, or 0.56 percent, to 16,993.40. Turnover totaled NT$226.694 billion (US$7.76 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$2.13 billion of shares after a net sell of NT$19.41 billion on Monday. The electronics sector rose 0.55 percent and the semiconductor sub-index closed 0.61 percent higher, while paper stocks rose 1.12 percent and the transportation sector rose 2.65 percent.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC plans staff subsidy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is planning to provide subsidies to employees who purchase its shares, the company said yesterday. To attract and retain staff, TSMC is set to launch the share purchase subsidy scheme for its 50,000 employees later this year, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday. This is the first time that TSMC has decided to subsidize employees buying its shares, the report said. Under the scheme expected to take effect in July, TSMC employees can have an amount deducted from their monthly salary to buy the company’s shares, while the company would offer subsidies of up to 15 percent to employees for those purchases, the report said. TSMC said that discussions about the subsidy program were under way and that details such as the subsidy rate would be determined during the company’s board meeting next month.
ELECTRONICS
Wiwynn plans NT$25 divined
Cloud computing equipment supplier Wiwynn Corp’s (緯穎科技) board of directors has proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$25 per share, representing a payout ratio of 50.5 percent based on its earnings per share of NT$49.46 for last year, the company said on Monday. Wiwynn, a subsidiary of contract electronics maker Wistron Corp (緯創), reported record net profit of NT$8.65 billion for last year, up 0.5 percent from 2020, as consolidated revenue increased 3 percent to NT$192.63 billion, the highest in the company’s history. Wiwynn supplies cloud-based servers and solutions to global data center operators such as Microsoft Corp, Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc. Due to steady growth in shipments to clients, revenue in the first quarter increased 29.07 percent year-on-year to NT$50.71 billion, the highest on record for the January-to-March period, the company said.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai ‘well’ in China
The world’s biggest iPhone assembly campus, on the outskirts of the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, is operating normally despite lockdowns and mass COVID-19 testing that began in the area last week, the Henan Daily reported. Operated by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), the sprawling assembly site’s importance to Apple Inc’s smartphone supply chain has earned the locality the nickname of iPhone City. “Production at the Foxconn campus is proceeding well with some 200,000 workers,” the newspaper said, citing Foxconn managers within the compound. “The supply lines haven’t been affected by COVID.”
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
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