EQUITIES
TAIEX dips on profit-taking
The TAIEX closed slightly lower yesterday, after coming off a historical intraday high, as investors locked in their gains from the first two sessions of this year, dealers said. Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which had been a driver of the main board’s gains in the previous two sessions, was affected by profit-taking, dealers said. TSMC fell 0.91 percent to close at NT$650. Buying rotated to select old economy and financial stocks, which lent support to the broader market, they said. The TAIEX closed down 26.39 points, or 0.14 percent, at 18,499.96. Turnover totaled NT$337.983 billion (US$12.24 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$9.34 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
AUTO PARTS
BizLink revenue up 6.59%
Wire harness maker BizLink Holding Inc (貿聯控股) yesterday posted revenue of NT$2.88 billion for last month, up 6.59 percent month-on-month and 44.13 percent year-on-year. BizLink, the sole supplier of wiring harnesses for battery management systems in Tesla Inc Model 3s, said in a statement that last month’s revenue rose above US$100 million for the first time in the company’s history. “Healthy year-end demand boosted sales, with shipments to data center customers rising, but shipments to electrical appliance customers slowing, while shipments to customers in our other segments stayed stable,” the company said. Total revenue for the whole of last year grew 27.03 percent year-on-year to NT$28.68 billion, the company said.
MANUFACTURING
Airtac profit up despite virus
Pneumatic components supplier Airtac International Group (亞德客) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$2.25 billion for last month, up 16.87 percent month-on-month and 13.74 percent year-on-year, as the company’s shipments gradually returned to normal, despite the unstable COVID-19 situation and power restrictions. “Although the [COVID-19] pandemic situation in some cities in China [has been] unstable recently, the company’s production and shipments have not been affected, with both orders and shipments remaining good in the first couple days of January,” Airtac said in a statement. The company said its overall revenue for the whole of last year grew 32.96 percent to a record of NT$25.4 billion. It is optimistic about its operations this year, so it aims to maintain a 110 percent production utilization rate to increase inventory and meet traditional peak-season demand from March, Airtac said.
ELECTRONICS
Lite-On posts record revenue
Electronic components supplier Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday reported record revenue of NT$15.06 billion for last month, up 0.94 percent from a month earlier and 12.04 percent from a year earlier. The company said its information technology and consumer electronics business, which accounted for 56 percent of its total sales, posted annual growth of 15 percent in sales last month. That was thanks to healthy shipments of notebook PC power adapters and power supplies for gaming, as well as keyboards and mice, coupled with smooth delivery of laser models of multifunction peripherals, it said. The company’s optoelectronics, and cloud and artificial intelligence of things segments reported 8 and 5 percent increases in sales respectively. Due to solid demand from its core business, cumulative sales for whole of last year totaled NT$164.83 billion, up 4.91 percent from 2020.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
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