EQUITIES
TAIEX up 0.37 percent
The TAIEX yesterday closed higher, but came off an earlier high as investors locked in profits ahead of stiff technical resistance at about 16,000 points. Large-cap semiconductor stocks saw more obvious profit-taking during the session, while buying continued to rotate to the old economy and financial sectors to give the broader market a boost, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 58.58 points, or 0.37 percent, at 15,911.67, on turnover of NT$260.011 billion (US$9.18 billion). Despite the gains in the TAIEX, foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$3.82 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC posts February record
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday reported a new sales record for February, with analysts attributing the growth to strong demand for the company’s high-end processors. TSMC said in a statement that it posted NT$106.53 billion in consolidated sales last month, the most ever in February and up 14.1 percent from a year earlier. Last month’s sales fell 15.9 percent month-on-month due to the reduced number of working days caused by the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday. Analysts said that with more working days this month, TSMC is expected to see month-on-month sales rebound. In the first two months of this year, TSMC generated sales of NT$233.28 billion, up 18.4 percent from a year earlier.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Phoenix sues over secrets
Silicon wafer recycler Phoenix Silicon International Corp (昇陽半導體) has filed a suit at the Hsinchu District Court against Integrated Service Technology Inc (宜特) and its employees, seeking damages of NT$5.64 billion for the alleged theft and use of its trade secrets. Phoenix said in a statement on Tuesday that Integrated Service Technology employees surnamed Lee (李) and Liu (劉) accessed 13 of its trade secrets, which Integrated Service Technology has appropriated. Integrated Service Technology denied the allegation and said that it would not rule out filing a lawsuit against Phoenix for smearing its name.
BANKING
King’s Town fined NT$1.8m
The Financial Supervisory Commission on Tuesday fined King’s Town Bank (京城銀行) NT$1.8 million and Shinkong Insurance Co (新光產險) NT$600,000 for breaching the Insurance Act (保險法). The commission found that King’s Town Bank changed its clients’ fire insurance policies without their approval, causing five clients to be overcharged by NT$3,153 from 2018 to last year, Insurance Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Yu-hui (張玉輝) said. Shinkong Insurance, which offered the fire insurance products for King’s Town Bank, ignored that some applicants did not sign their documents, the commission said.
APPAREL
Quang Viet’s revenue drops
Down jacket and outdoor garment maker Quang Viet Enterprise Co (廣越企業) on Tuesday said that its revenue fell 16.43 percent to NT$446 million last month, from NT$533.77 million a year earlier. Quang Viet said the drop was milder than it had expected. The company said that orders have started coming in, and it expects a significant improvement in revenue next quarter. The firm reported that its annual declines in revenue have decreased over the past two months, from a 38 percent year-on-year slump in December last year.
REGIONAL COMPETITION: Over the past few years the Philippines has lost ground to neighbors such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, a Philippine official said The Philippines is trying to enlist Taiwanese chip giants to expand in semiconductors, a bid to catch up with its neighbors who are emerging as significant suppliers in the industry. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) are among companies the Philippines is reaching out to as it seeks equipment and expertise to build out chip fabrication operations, said Dan Lachica, head of the Southeast Asian country’s main electronics industry group, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc (SEIPI). The association is working with Philippine officials in Taiwan to talk with potential
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) halted shipments to a customer this month after its semiconductors were sent to China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為), potentially breaching US sanctions, a government official said. The US slapped sanctions on Huawei in 2019, and expanded them the following year, over fears its technology could be used for Beijing’s espionage operations. The restrictions prevent TSMC from selling semiconductors to Huawei. However, TSMC discovered on Oct. 11 that chips made for a “specific customer” had ended up with the Chinese company, a Taiwanese official with knowledge of the incident said on the condition of anonymity. TSMC “immediately activated
Nvidia Corp is set to unveil investment plans for Thailand, joining Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp, as Southeast Asia becomes a hot spot for building artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and manufacturing the components that power them. The US chip designing firm would announce investments during chief executive officer Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) trip to Bangkok in December, Thai Minister of Commerce Pichai Naripthaphan said on Monday. He declined to give details on the investment or how much the company would bring into Thailand. The investment by Nvidia could lead to more funding “with related clusters following suit,” Pichai said. Clinching
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98