Passive-component supplier Yageo Corp (國巨) yesterday saw its stock rally nearly 4 percent amid expectations that the stock would extend its uptrend through the end of the year and speculation that China’s latest curb on toxic emissions would limit production of raw materials for passive components, thereby reducing their supply.
Shares of Yageo leaped 3.82 percent to NT$843, making it the second-most traded stock by value after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Shares of local rival Walsin Technology Corp (華新科技) soared 7.41 percent to NT$369.5 yesterday, while the TAIEX edged up 0.14 percent.
A total of NT$11.45 billion (US$373.6 million) of Yageo shares changed hands yesterday, the tally showed, as more signs indicated that the price hikes for passive components might not come to an end this year.
Yageo has forecast that it could reach full capacity utilization over the next two years given strong customer demand.
On the supply side, the government of Chaoqing City in China’s Guangdong Province ordered all ceramic electric powder suppliers with operations in the city to slash production by 50 percent, beginning on Sunday last week, in the local government’s latest crackdown on toxic emissions, Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (騰訊) news app Tian Tian Kuai Bao (天天快報) reported earlier this month.
The factories were told to fully shut down their factories through early October, the report said.
The scale-down in the production of raw material used in passive components, multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) and chip resistors is expected to further squeeze an already-tight supply of passive components, boosting their prices, the report said.
The order came as it aimed to reduce environmental pollution during a major sports event held by the city government next month, the report said.
A Japanese investment consultancy last week raised the target prices of major Japanese MLCC manufacturers, including Murata Manufacturing Co, Taiyuo Yuten Co and TDK Corp.
It increased the target price of Murata to ¥25,000 from a previous estimate of ¥18,500, as strong demand pushed up MLCC exports 45 percent year-on-year in May, according to the consultancy.
Murata was reportedly in talks with clients to hike MLCC prices by 20 to 30 percent, which would boost the company’s financial performance for the remainder of the year, it said.
Taiyuo Yuten and TDK also saw their target prices raised to ¥4,000 and ¥13,000, from ¥2,800 and ¥10,500 respectively.
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控) yesterday launched its second testing facility in San Jose, California, to expand advanced chip testing capacity such as burn-in testing to satisfy customers’ rising engineering needs for emerging semiconductor applications, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). ISE Labs Inc, a fully owned subsidiary of ASE, would operate the advanced testing facility. When added to its first facility in nearby Fremont, ISE would double its available research-and-development lab and business space to 150,000m2 in hopes of boosting the US semiconductor supply chain, the company said in a statement. “As the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain reshoring
VALUE: TSMC’s market capitalization far exceeds the combined size of all the Latin American companies on MSCI Inc’s benchmark for emerging markets Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) US$420 billion equity rally this year would get a valuation test this week when it reports earnings, with analysts expecting the chipmaker to raise full-year sales forecasts. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker would probably report a 29 percent increase in second-quarter net income on Thursday, according to the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. More importantly, analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co to Morgan Stanley expect it to also raise its full-year sales guidance, justifying another round of valuation expansion. Just like Nvidia Corp, TSMC has become a favorite artificial intelligence (AI)-bet for investors with
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: The previous shooting targeting a US president or major party candidate was the 1981 incident targeting then-US president Ronald Reagan Saturday’s shooting at former US president Donald Trump’s election rally raises his odds of winning back the White House, and trades betting on his victory would increase this coming week, investors said yesterday. Trump was shot in the ear during the rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday in what the authorities were treating as an assassination attempt. Trump, his face spattered with blood, pumped his fist moments after the attack, and his campaign said he was fine after the incident. Before the shooting, markets had reacted to the prospect of a Trump presidency by pushing the US dollar higher and positioning for a
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday thanked memory chipmaker Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra for his trust and continued investment in Taiwan, in a rare public meeting with a senior foreign tech executive. It is very unusual for Taiwan’s president to have publicized meetings with senior foreign tech executives, despite the nation being home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), whose chips help to power the surge in artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Lai thanked Mehrotra for “showing trust and support for Taiwan” in a video released by the Presidential Office. “I want to thank Micron for its long-term