EQUITIES
Foreigners sell NT$200m
Foreign institutional investors last week sold a net NT$200 million (US$6.61 million) of local shares, after buying a net NT$119.55 billion the previous week, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The top three shares bought by foreign investors were Evergreen International Storage & Transport Corp (長榮國際儲運), and flat-panel makers Innolux Corp (群創) and AUO Corp (友達光電), the exchange said in a statement. The top three shares sold by foreign investors were E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控), EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), it said. As of Friday, foreign investors had bought NT$244.95 billion of local shares since the beginning of this year, while the market capitalization of the shares held by foreign investors was NT$20.21 trillion, or 41.46 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
CHIPMAKERS
GMT net profit falls
Global Mixed-mode Technology Inc (GMT, 致新), which designs power management chips used in notebook computers, flat panels and TVs, yesterday reported that net profit last quarter fell to its lowest in 15 quarters at NT$152 million, or earnings per share of NT$1.77. That came as revenue last quarter decreased 4.16 percent from the previous quarter to NT$1.71 billion and gross margin fell 9 percentage points sequentially to 35 percent, the company said. Earnings last quarter were negatively affected by unfavorable foreign exchange rates, falling product prices and inventory losses, it said. For the whole of last year, its earnings per share were NT$22.46, down from NT$25.45 in 2021. GMT said it expects end-market demand to return to the normal seasonal cycle this year.
ENERGY
TSEC revenue plummets
Solar cell and module supplier TSEC Corp (元晶太陽能) yesterday reported that revenue last month plummeted 38.36 percent to NT$702.25 million, from NT$1.14 billion in December last year. Last month’s figure was the lowest since October last year, when it posted NT$697.57 million in revenue, company data showed. TSEC attributed the monthly decline to the Lunar New Year holiday and a weak factory start by solar energy developers in the first quarter of the year, as companies wait for new solar subsidies from the government. On an annual basis, TSEC revenue fell 3.08 percent from NT$724.58 billion.
TRAVEL
Flight operations recovering
International flight operations in Taiwan are set to reach pre-COVID-19 levels in the middle of next year, Boeing Commercial Airplanes marketing managing director for Asia Pacific David Schulte said on Friday in Taipei. Relaxed border restrictions in Taiwan have increased flight operations to 75 percent of pre-pandemic levels, with intra-Asia travel leading the recovery and likely to reach pre-pandemic levels over the next few years, he said. The outbound travel market from Taiwan to destinations in Asia is this year to be 3.4 times higher than last year, Schulte said. Likewise, outbound travel from Taiwan to North America and Europe would likely grow by 2.4 times and 2.5 times respectively, he said. Region-wise, Schulte said that operators in the Asia-Pacific region would need 6,250 new airplanes by 2041, with Northeast Asia requiring 1,345 of those to meet demand.
ASML Holding NV’s new advanced chip machines have a daunting price tag, said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), one of the Dutch company’s biggest clients. “The cost is very high,” TSMC senior vice president Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, referring to ASML’s latest system known as high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV). “I like the high-NA EUV’s capability, but I don’t like the sticker price,” Zhang said. ASML’s new chip machine can imprint semiconductors with lines that are just 8 nanometers thick — 1.7 times smaller than the previous generation. The machines cost 350 million euros (US$378 million)
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are
EXPLOSION: A driver who was transporting waste material from the site was hit by a blunt object after an uncontrolled pressure release and thrown 6m from the truck Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday there was no damage to its facilities after an incident at its Arizona factory construction site where a waste disposal truck driver was transported to hospital. Firefighters responded to an explosion on Wednesday afternoon at the TSMC plant in Phoenix, the Arizona Republic reported, citing the local fire department. Cesar Anguiano-Guitron, 41, was transporting waste material from the project site and stopped to inspect the tank when he was made aware of a potential problem, a police report seen by Bloomberg News showed. Following an “uncontrolled pressure release,” he was hit by a blunt