FOOD AND BEVERAGE
McDonald’s short on fries
McDonald’s Taiwan yesterday announced that its restaurants would stop serving French fries as they run out of stock, because of global shipping issues. The fast-food chain said it had yet to calculate how many of its Taiwan branches would be unable to sell French fries in the coming days, but it expects them to gradually resume sales of fries staring on Friday.
EQUITIES
TAIEX up despite US losses
The TAIEX yesterday staged a rally, with the bellwether electronics sector continuing to steam ahead as investors ignored overnight losses among tech stocks in the US, dealers said. Despite the upturn, turnover remained thin, as many investors continued to worry about volatility in US markets because the US Federal Reserve is considering more rate hikes, they said. The TAIEX ended up 155.05 points, or 0.98 percent, at 16,056.09. Turnover totaled NT$206.791 billion (US$6.96 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$858 million in shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The electronics sector rose 1.53 percent and the semiconductor sub-index soared 1.97 percent, while the financial sector lost 0.45 percent and the transportation sector fell 1.90 percent, the exchange’s data showed.
EQUITIES
Listed firms’ revenue rises
The combined revenue of the 946 companies listed on the nation’s main board increased 14.74 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to NT$9.26 trillion, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. Combined pretax profit grew 27.11 percent to NT$1.18 trillion over the period, it said, adding that the 946 listed companies do not include financial holding companies. Container shippers, semiconductor firms and electronic components suppliers posted the biggest growth in profit last quarter, the exchange said. Taiwan Land Development Corp (台灣土地開發) and Billionton Systems Inc (互億科技) failed to submit their first-quarter financial results to the exchange by Monday as required by the financial regulators, it added.
AUTO PARTS
Tong Yang profit up 466%
Auto parts supplier Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業) reported that its pretax profit surged 466 percent to NT$205 million last month from a year earlier, its best April performance since 2020, the company said in a statement on Monday. In the first four months of this year, pretax profit expanded 72 percent year-on-year to NT$592 million, which translated into pretax earnings per share of NT$0.98, while revenue grew 14 percent year-on-year to NT$6.82 billion in the January to April period, it said. The company said it is speeding up production to cope with a rebound in customer demand, and is gearing up to develop new products for electric vehicles to grasp new business opportunities.
EQUITIES
Chinese tech shares jump
Chinese tech stocks rose as traders bet that a key meeting yesterday between the nation’s top regulators and corporate giants would result in Beijing dialing back its year-long clampdown on the industry. The Hang Seng Tech Index rallied 5.78 percent, its biggest increase this month. A turnaround in the tech sector might be already under way. On Monday, JPMorgan Chase & Co analysts upgraded a number of tech firms including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) to overweight from underweight, just two months after deeming the sector “uninvestable.”
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such