The nation’s listed companies posted pretax profits of NT$1.26 trillion (US$42.7 billion) last quarter, up 26.6 percent year-on-year and the highest first-quarter performance in the past decade, data released by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed.
The overall pretax profits of all 946 firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) grew 27.31 percent year-on-year to NT$1.14 trillion in the first quarter, also the best performance in 10 years, commission data showed.
The main growth momentum came from the shipping sector, which benefited from high freight rates amid ongoing port congestion worldwide, as well as robust demand for semiconductors and electronic components, which benefited from rising demand for 5G devices and automotive electronics.
However, the financial sector posted a decline in pretax profits because of lower investment income due to interest rate increases and uncertainty on financial markets amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The photovoltaic and plastics sectors also posted contractions in pretax profits as rising inflation reduced demand, TWSE data showed.
Pretax earnings posted by the 794 firms listed on the Taipei Exchange (TPEX) grew 11.63 percent year-on-year to NT$76.8 billion last quarter, also the best performance in 10 years, commission data showed.
About 77 percent of the companies registered a net profit, with 16 posting earnings per share of more than NT$5, TPEX data showed.
The steel, photovoltaic and semiconductor sectors reported the strongest profit growth due to robust demand, the TPEX data showed.
Meanwhile, Billionton Systems Inc (互億科技) is facing the risk of being delisted from the TWSE next month as it has not submitted any financial results since the third quarter of last year, the commission said.
Taiwan Land Development Corp (台灣土地開發), which did not submit results for the first quarter, faces being delisted from the TWSE in November if it does not submit financial results for the next two quarters, the commission added.
AI SPLURGE: The four major US tech companies have lost more than US$950 billion in value since releasing earnings and outlooks, while equipment makers were gaining Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that would reach about US$650 billion this year — a flood of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear within them. The spending planned by Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp, all in pursuit of dominance in the still-nascent market for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, is a boom without a parallel this century. Each of the companies’ estimates for this year is expected either near or surpass their budgets for the past three years combined. They would set a high-watermark for capital spending
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Bank of America Corp nearly doubled its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year, adding to a slew of upgrades even after a rip-roaring last year propelled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI). The firm lifted its projection to 8 percent from 4.5 percent on “relentless global demand” for the hardware that Taiwanese companies make, according to a note dated yesterday by analysts including Xiaoqing Pi (皮曉青). Taiwan’s GDP expanded 8.63 percent last year, the fastest pace since 2010. The increase “reflects our sustained optimism over Taiwan’s technology driven expansion and is reinforced by several recent developments,” including a more stable currency,
COLLABORATION: Taiwan and the US could jointly find solutions to weaknesses in supply chain resilience for critical materials, focusing on mining and initial refinement Taiwan is likely to purchase rare earths from the US in the future, and is also in talks with Australia and Canada to strengthen global rare earth supply chain security, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Taiwan and the US last month concluded the sixth Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue, during which both sides signed a joint statement endorsing the principles of the Pax Silica Declaration, pledging to deepen cooperation in areas including critical minerals. At the time, Kung said the two sides would establish working groups to advance cooperation in areas including artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, critical materials and
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