Innolux shares hit fresh high
Innolux Display Corp (群創光電), the world’s second-largest assembler of flat-screen computers, rose to its highest level in eight months in Taipei trading after Macquarie Group Ltd increased its target price on the stock.
Miaoli-based Innolux gained 4.7 percent to NT$45.5 as of 1:20pm, set for the highest close since Sept. 9, while the benchmark TAIEX index rose 1.2 percent.
Macquarie increased Innolux’s target price to NT$57 from NT$34, saying Sony Corp’s restructuring plan should benefit Innolux because it would result in more LCD TV outsourcing business. The research house kept its rating on the company at “outperform.”
“We believe Sony is among one of several top-tier TV brands that Innolux will ship to this year,” Macquarie analysts Nicholas Teo and Joyce Wang wrote in a report yesterday.
Sony forecast a straight second full-year loss on Thursday and said it would stop making LCD TVs and electronic cables at two plants in Indonesia and in the US.
Vietnam approves joint venture
China Steel (中鋼) said yesterday authorities in Vietnam approved its application to set up a joint venture there with Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Industries.
In a statement, China Steel said it received approval from the Vietnamese government last week to establish the joint venture, to be capitalized at US$1.15 billion with Sumitomo Metal Industries and Taiwanese partners.
China Steel will take a 51 percent stake in the new venture, China Steel Sumikin Vietnam Joint Stock Co, which is expected to produce 1.6 million tonnes of cold rolled steel products annually for auto and home appliance use.
While the global economy has been hit hard, “the partners of the joint venture will go ahead with the project based on our long term investment strategies,” China Steel said in the statement.
The joint venture is aimed at ASEAN markets.
Airbus passes test flight
The first Airbus A320 plane assembled outside Europe made a successful four-hour test flight from Tianjin, China, yesterday, Airbus said.
“This A320 assembled in China unquestionably demonstrated the same quality and performance as those assembled and delivered in Hamburg or Toulouse,” Fernando Alonso, head of flight testing for Airbus, said in a statement.
The first Tianjin-assembled A320 is scheduled to be delivered to Dragon Aviation Leasing next month for operation by Sichuan Airlines.
Airbus said it has orders for more than 700 planes from Chinese customers, mostly for models from the A320 series.
Its Tianjin assembly line is scheduled to deliver 11 A319 or A320 planes this year.
The assembly plant, opened in September, is a joint-venture between Airbus and a Beijing-backed consortium.
Chinese state media last year said total investment in the plant was between 8 billion yuan and 12 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion to US$1.8 billion).
NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar fell to its lowest level in more than a week as economic reports damped optimism that a global recession is abating, prompting investors to seek safer bets than emerging-market assets. Bonds advanced.
The NT dollar fell against the greenback after overseas investors cut their holdings of local shares for each of the past six days and a technical indicator showed a reversal of direction was due.
The currency fell 0.1 percent to close at NT$32.994, according to Taipei Forex Inc. It earlier touched NT$33.15, the weakest level since May 7.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
RSS