SEMICONDUCTORS
Macronix sets dividend
Memorychip maker Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) on Friday said its board had approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$1 per common share after the firm swung into the black last year after five unprofitable years. The proposed dividend, which would be the first since 2012, represents a 2.09 percent dividend yield based on the company’s stock price of NT$47.9. Macronix made NT$5.52 billion (US$188.84 million) in net profit last year, with earnings per share of NT$3.12. The board also approved a program to raise funds by issuing 360 million common shares among overseas investors, the firm said.
ELECTRONICS
PCB industry sees growth
Total production value of the nation’s printed circuit board (PCB) industry is expected to increase 4 percent this year, following 9.5 percent growth to NT$610 billion last year, Taiwan Printed Circuit Association chairman Rick Wu (吳永輝) said on Friday at a public event. Wu, who is president of flexible PCB producer Career Technology Co (嘉聯益), thanked the association’s members for supporting it as it enters its 20th year. Issues such as “smart manufacturing” and “global competence” would be key to the industry’s future, he said.
FINANCE
Promotion, dividend set
Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) on Friday said that it had appointed senior vice president Huang Min-yi (黃敏義) to serve as president, replacing Catherine Lee (李紀珠), who would continue to serve as vice chairman. It also announced that its board had approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$0.35 per common share and plus a stock dividend of 1.5 percent. The cash dividend will be the firm’s highest in 10 years.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
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