ECONOMY
Bond sale to fetch NT$145bn
The government plans to auction NT$115 billion (US$3.9 billion) in bonds and NT$30 billion in treasury bills in the third quarter of this year to help repay debt and handle special funding needs, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The third-quarter sale of NT$145 billion in total bonds and treasury bills is 12.12 percent lower than the NT$165 billion debt the government sold in the second quarter. Apart from the regular five-year, 10-year and 20-year bonds to be issued each month in the next quarter, the ministry said it plans to sell NT$30 billion in 273-day treasury bills in August to help state coffers meet short-term capital needs. The ministry did not specify the total worth of bonds to be sold in the fourth quarter, saying only that there would be a total of four bond issues.
COMPONENTS
Synnex takes NT$14bn loan
Synnex Technology International Corp (聯強國際), the largest distributor of information, communications, consumer electronics and semiconductor products in the Asia-Pacific region, yesterday secured a syndicated loan of NT$14.4 billion from nine local banks led by Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行), the company said in a statement. It has been eight years since the company last received a syndicated loan, and banks have shown great interest in the deal with oversubscription by nearly two times, it said. Other banks included are Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行). The company is to use the loan to replenish its working capital in the medium term, it said. The loan is linked to three environmental, social and governance sustainability indicators, namely “total water consumption,” “total electricity consumption” and “satisfaction with home services,” it added.
INVESTMENT
TAIFEX payout approved
Shareholders of the Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) yesterday approved the exchange’s proposal to distribute a dividend of NT$4.55 per share, including a cash dividend of NT$3.15 per share. At its annual general meeting in Taipei, TAIFEX told shareholders that Taiwan’s futures market registered a record-high trading volume of 392.2 million contracts last year, up 14.9 percent year-on-year, with an average daily volume of 1.61 million contracts. Foreign institutions accounted for 31.46 percent of the market volume as of the end of last year, a record high and up from 26.03 percent in 2020, it said. Thanks to rising trading volume amid greater market volatility and a stronger appetite for risk, the exchange reported net profit of NT$3.19 billion, or earnings per share of NT$7.59.
SHIPPING
Shippers unite on new route
Container shippers Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) and Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海航運) on Wednesday said they would team up with Singapore-based shipping company Pacific International Lines Pte Ltd to launch a new shipping route from China’s Ningbo to Latin America. The new service is to launch from July 13, as the shippers aim to meet rising market demand, they said in a joint statement. A fleet of 10 vessels apiece with a capacity from 3,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) to 4,250 TEUs would be used on the weekly service, Wan Hai said. A round trip would take 70 days, the statement said.
China’s chip industry is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, after US sanctions on local champions — from Huawei Technologies Co (華為) to Hikvision Digital Technology Co (海康威視) — spurred appetite for homegrown components. Nineteen of the world’s 20 fastest-growing chip industry firms over the past four quarters, on average, hail from the world’s No. 2 economy, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. That compared with just eight firms at the same point last year. Revenue at China-based suppliers of design software, processors and gear vital to chipmaking is increasing at several times the pace of global leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co
Had Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck hopped on an electric scooter rather than a Vespa in the classic film Roman Holiday, their spin around the Eternal City might have ended in tears. The number of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers has prompted Rome authorities to impose some order on a booming rental market that began two years ago. The havoc came to a head earlier this month when two US tourists attempted a night-time drive down the Spanish Steps, causing more than 25,000 euros (US$26,392) worth of damage to the 18th-century monument. Caught on security footage, the couple in their late 20s
POSITIVE SIGNS: GlobalWafers has continued to sign long-term supply agreements, most of which exceed 2028, and aside from one factory, it is running at full capacity GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer maker, yesterday said that Samsung Electronics Co and most of its customers have not scaled back on orders, or delayed shipments, even though consumer spending has shifted away from smartphones and notebook computers due to mounting inflation pressures. Rising inflation has altered consumers’ spending habits, dampening sales of consumer electronics, the Hsinchu-based company said. However, customers all honored their supply agreements by adjusting their product mix and shifting to applications that are still reporting robust growth, it said. Aside from one 6-inch factory, GlobalWafers’ 15 factories around the world are running at 100 percent
Nearly a quarter of European companies in China are considering shifting their investments out of the country as COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns dim the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy, a survey showed. About 23 percent of the businesses that responded to the survey are thinking of moving their current or planned investments away from China, a report released yesterday by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China said. The survey was conducted at the end of April, when Shanghai was still in shut down and restrictions in places like Jilin Province disrupted business activity. The number of European firms reassessing
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