Exposure to China among Taiwanese financial institutions — including banks, insurance companies, securities and futures brokerages, and investment trusts — reached a record-low NT$876.95 billion (US$29.71 billion) at the end of April, Financial Supervisory Commission data showed on Sunday.
Their exposure was down NT$165.75 billion, or 15.89 percent, from a year earlier amid concerns over a slowing Chinese economy, rising local government debts and a multiyear real-estate crisis, as well as persisting geopolitical risks, the commission said.
In terms of declines in total exposure, the banking sector experienced the largest drop, as Taiwanese banks cut their combined exposure — including lending, investments, and interbank loans and deposits — by NT$145.27 billion, or 15.16 percent, to NT$813.2 billion from a year earlier, the data showed.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwanese banks scaled back lending to the Chinese market by a combined NT$99.87 billion from a year earlier and decreased investments by NT$20.83 billion and interbank loans by NT$24.57 billion over the same period, it showed.
The sector’s exposure to China has declined for seven consecutive years since the US-China trade dispute started in 2018.
As of the end of April, local banks’ exposure accounted for 17.2 percent of the sector’s net worth, the lowest level since the data became available in the third quarter of 2013, the commission said.
Taiwanese insurance companies’ investments in marketable securities in China fell NT$20.9 billion, or 29 percent, from a year earlier to NT$52.4 billion at the end of April, accounting for only 0.16 percent of the sector’s total disposable funds, it said.
The sector’s investments in Chinese securities were all made by life insurers, while property and casualty insurers have held no securities in China since January 2023, it said.
Meanwhile, the combined exposure to China of Taiwanese securities and futures brokerages, as well as securities investment trust and consulting firms rose NT$457 million, or 4.2 percent annually, to NT$11.35 billion at the end of April, accounting for 1.39 percent of the sector’s net worth, the data showed.
The sector’s expanded exposure to China reflected that securities firms’ proprietary finance units slightly increased investments in short-term debt holdings, the commission said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS