Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday tumbled 2.23 percent as investors cautioned of the adverse effects of a US ban on using products from China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為).
TSMC supplies advanced 7-nanometer processors to HiSilicon Technologies Co (海思半導體), the chip-designing arm of Huawei.
Shares of TSMC fell to NT$241.5, contributing to a NT$609.36 billion (US$19.47 billion) drop in market capital for the company since May 5, when US President Donald Trump tweeted that the US would hike tariffs on US$325 billion of Chinese goods.
Trump on Thursday signed an executive order declaring a national emergency that would ban US companies from using telecommunications equipment made by firms that might pose national security risks.
The US Department of Commerce later added Huawei and its affiliates to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s “Entity List,” barring the companies from procuring components and technology from US firms without government approval.
Huawei’s handset manufacturing and even sales might have to shut down completely due to the ban, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said.
That might mean an order loss for TSMC, which mainly provides high-end processors such as its 7-nanometer Kirin 980 chipset to Huawei, the investment consultant said.
“The impact would likely be neutral,” as the loss might be compensated by order gains from MediaTek Inc (聯發科) or Qualcomm Inc, Yuanta said.
Washington might next ban US companies from exporting key components to China, or even from selling software to Huawei, it said.
“Our channel checks suggest that the market generally believes Huawei has raised its inventory to a level that would enable it to meet seven months of demand,” Yuanta said.
Even if the US bars component exports to China across the board, the effects on Huawei should be limited in the short term, it said.
TSMC is not the only firm in Huawei’s supply chain to suffer the brunt of the US ban.
Shares of Largan Precision Co (大立光), which supplies camera lens to Huawei and Apple Inc, yesterday plunged 9.41 percent to NT$3,850.
Since May 5, Largan’s market value has tumbled NT$110.67 billion.
The US ban might weigh on Huawei’s handset sales growth this year, Yuanta said, adding that Huawei mainly purchased camera lens and flat panels from Taiwanese suppliers.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS