China Steel posts loss
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest and only integrated steel maker, posted a second straight quarterly loss in the first three months of the year because of weakening demand and falling prices, it said yesterday.
The first-quarter loss was NT$7.18 billion (US$212 million), or NT$0.59 per share, compared with a profit of NT$11.7 billion, or NT$0.98 in earnings per share, a year earlier, the Kaohsiung-based company said in a statement.
But the first-quarter loss was nearly halved from a loss of NT$15.5 billion the company posted for the fourth quarter of last year.
The company said the losses could narrow further in the second quarter if raw material prices hold steady after annual iron ore negotiations conclude and steel prices stop falling, the statement said.
In the first quarter, revenue dropped 36 percent to NT$36.6 billion from a year ago, while sales volume fell 37 percent year-on-year to 1.66 million tonnes, it said.
China Steel is scheduled to announce prices for domestic customers tomorrow. The Kaohsiung-based company cut domestic prices by 14 percent in the April-May period.
Winbond reports loss
Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), the nation’s fifth-largest memory chip maker, yesterday posted a net loss of NT$5.22 billion (US$154 million), or NT$1.43 per share, in the first quarter, a company filing showed.
Revenue was NT$3.13 billion in the first quarter, down 17 percent from the previous quarter.
The Taichung-based company attributed the decline to the weakening average selling price of commodity DRAM, losses on the disposal of investment and inventory write-downs caused by the insolvency of its German partner Qimonda AG, the company said in the stock exchange filing.
The company said it is optimistic about its second-quarter performance, as stable demand in consumer electronics in China is likely to boost its sales in specialty RAM chips and NOR flash chips.
In addition, improved migration in process technology at the company’s 12-inch fabs is expected to help cut production costs, the company said.
Cathay offers to buy back bonds
Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) offered to buy back US$175 million of its 5.5 percent subordinated bonds maturing in 2020 at a discount to face value.
The lender, a unit of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), on April 14 offered to buy back US$125 million of the debt. It hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to manage a modified Dutch auction, which will close at midnight New York time on May 12.
Taipei-based Cathay United will pay between US$0.82 and US$0.92 plus interest to investors who accept the buyback by April 27. Those who tender after April 27 and before May 12 will receive US$0.03 less than the final price.
NT dollar weakens on flu
The New Taiwan dollar weakened for a second day on concern the growing threat of swine flu will heighten investor risk aversion for emerging markets.
The NT dollar fell 0.2 percent to NT$33.795 as of the 4pm close, Taipei Forex Inc said.
“The reflex reaction is the flight to the US dollar,” said David Cohen, director of Asian forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore.
Cohen expects the local currency to strengthen to NT$32 by the end of the year as exports increase on a revival in global demand.
Yesterday, Goldman Sachs raised its economic growth forecast for Taiwan for next year to 3.5 percent from 2.5 percent as improved relations with China start to benefit businesses.
The economy will shrink 7 percent this year, Goldman predicted.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day