TECHNOLOGY
King Yuan sales rise 2.42%
IC testing service provider King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電) yesterday reported revenue of NT$3.27 billion (US$118.3 million) for last month, up 2.42 percent month-on-month and 38.07 percent year-on-year. Revenue last quarter increased 6 percent to NT$9.53 billion — a record for the fourth quarter — as the company benefited from increased demand for chips used in 5G, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications. King Yuan’s revenue for the whole of last year rose 16.58 percent to NT$33.76 billion from 2020, also a company record.
CERTIFICATION
Sporton revenue hits record
Sporton International Inc (耕興), which provides professional product testing and certification services, yesterday reported that its revenue last month increased 17.75 percent month-on-month and 30.53 percent year-on-year to a record NT$412.27 million. Sporton said that it attributed the increase to robust demand in Taiwan and the US, as the markets continue to migrate to 5G technology. Revenue in the fourth quarter rose 18.11 percent to NT$1.11 billion from a year earlier, while revenue for the whole of last year reached NT$4.32 billion, up 22.94 percent from 2020, it said.
AIRLINES
CAL announces pay hike
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday said that it would give employees an annual bonus equal to six months’ wages and offer a 4 percent pay increase this year. CAL, the only Taiwanese carrier that made a profit in the first three quarters of last year, posted a net profit of nearly NT$1.56 billion. In the first 11 months of last year, its revenue increased 15.99 percent annually to NT$121.94 billion. The company is expected to continue benefiting from elevated cargo demand and robust air freight rates this year, Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) said in October, after raising its outlook for the airline from “negative” to “stable.”
STEELMAKERS
Yieh Hsing to expand plant
Steelmaker Yieh Hsing Enterprise Co (燁興企業) yesterday said it would invest NT$1.272 billion to expand its plant at the Ping Nan Industrial Park (屏南工業區) in Pingtung County. The capacity of the plant, which supplies steel wires and stainless steel pipes, is expected to expand to 450,000 tonnes per year from 300,000 tonnes, Yieh Hsing said, adding that it plans to complete the expansion in two years. The money would also be used to upgrade facilities and install solar panels as the company seeks to improve the competitiveness of its product line, and comply with policies on energy savings and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, it said in a regulatory filing.
UNITED STATES
Greenback ‘to get stronger’
The US dollar is expected to become stronger in the first half of the year, but face downward pressure in the second half, as capital might leave the US if its fiscal and account deficits persist while economies elsewhere recover, Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) Ltd (渣打國際商業銀行) said on Wednesday. Investors are advised to hold gold positions to hedge against volatility, as Standard Chartered believes virtual assets such as bitcoin are less effective at hedging against volatility, Standard Chartered investment strategy head Allen Liu (劉家豪) said. Cryptocurrencies are more like a special investment, which can hardly replace gold, he said.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
TARIFFS: The global ‘panic atmosphere remains strong,’ and foreign investors have continued to sell their holdings since the start of the year, the Ministry of Finance said The government yesterday authorized the activation of its NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) National Stabilization Fund (NSF) to prop up the local stock market after two days of sharp falls in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s new import tariffs. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement after the market close that the steering committee of the fund had been given the go-ahead to intervene in the market to bolster Taiwanese shares in a time of crisis. The fund has been authorized to use its assets “to carry out market stabilization tasks as appropriate to maintain the stability of Taiwan’s
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
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