MANUFACTURING
Sector showing growth
The local manufacturing sector continued to show signs of improvement in August as Taiwan’s exports rebounded, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research said yesterday. The institute said the manufacturing composite index for August rose 1.32 points from a month earlier to 11.84, flashing “yellow-blue” — which indicates that the sector is in a transition period between recession and growth — for the second consecutive month. Prior to July, the index saw 15 months of “blue” lights, indicating sector decline. Among the five sub-indices in the composite index, four showed signs of improvement, the institute said.
STEELMAKERS
CSC name acting chairman
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) has been named acting chairman of China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) after Andrew Sung (宋志育) yesterday retired from the post. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is still discussing possible candidates with the Executive Yuan to lead the nation’s largest steel mill, local media reported. The company’s aggregate pre-tax profit for the first eight months of the year grew 24.48 percent from the same period of last year to NT$13.91 billion (US$443.5 million), the company reported earlier this week.
HOME APPLIANCES
Tatung shares plunge
Shares of Tatung Co (大同), a home-appliances manufacturer, tanked yesterday, after the Taiwan High Court ordered chairman Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山) to pay NT$2.29 billion to investors for embezzling Tatung funds to pay a NT$2 billion loan from Nature Worldwide Technology Corp (通達), a friend’s company in which Lin had invested. Lin’s actions contributed to losses of up to NT$1.7 billion for Tatung between 2007 and 2010, and triggered the Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center to file a class-action lawsuit against Lin. Tatung shares plummeted 8.27 percent to NT$7.76 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Lin can still appeal the case.
BANKING
Apple Pay applications open
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has started accepting applications from local banks to provide Apple Pay mobile services, DigiTimes reported on its Web site yesterday. The report said the commission would only allow credit card payments initially, while other methods, such as debit cards, might be allowed later. CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行), Cathay United Commercial Bank (國泰世華銀行), E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) and Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) are among the banks who might start offering Apple Pay when it becomes available, the report said.
ELECTRONICS
Sharp to invest in LED
Sharp Corp is investing ￥57.4 billion (US$567 million) to develop organic LED display production facilities, with the aim of starting output by June 2018. The funds are to be used for equipment and to deliver sample products to customers, the Osaka, Japan-based company said in a statement yesterday. Sharp is investing in its factories in Mie and Osaka. The investment is part of the company’s ￥200 billion commitment to OLED technology, part of a strategic plan it adopted with its new owner, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密). The proposed investment will be for smartphone displays, according to Sharp, which is among suppliers that provide screens for Apple Inc’s products.
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
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