EQUITIES
Foreigners buy NT$29.96bn
Foreign investors last week bought a net NT$29.96 billion (US$1.08 billion) of local shares after buying a net NT$48.5 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The top three shares foreign investors bought last week were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) and Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), while the top three sold were United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), Innolux Corp (群創) and Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), the exchange said. As of Friday, the market cap of shares held by foreign investors was NT$24.61 trillion, or 43.79 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
MANUFACTURING
Value Valves sales hit high
Value Valves Co (捷流閥業) yesterday reported record revenue of NT$2.4 billion for last year, up 0.59 percent from the previous year, after posting better-than-expected sales for last month — up 8.11 percent year-on-year to NT$207.29 million. The company, which manufactures a range of valves with facilities in Taiwan and China, attributed the strong results to rising demand for valves in the petrochemical, shipping and electronics industries. The company said rising orders for cryogenic valves, which are used in liquefied natural gas carriers, also contributed to revenue growth.
MANUFACTURING
Iron Force sales fall 1.87%
Iron Force Industrial Co (劍麟), which makes clothes hangers, seat belts, airbag inflators and safety parts, yesterday reported revenue of NT$293.56 million for last month, down 1.87 percent from a month earlier and 20.05 percent from a year earlier. The company said that clothes hanger sales fell due to fewer working days last month, but auto parts sales increased due to seasonal factors. Total revenue for last year was NT$3.64 billion, up 5.64 percent from 2020, with auto parts accounting for 80 percent of sales and clothes hangers making up the remainder, it said.
MACHINERY
Bright Sheland sales rise
Bright Sheland International Co (旭然國際), which makes filtration products and separation systems under the Filtrafine brand, yesterday reported revenue of NT$58.37 million for last month, up 37.34 percent from a year earlier and posting a monthly record for a second consecutive month. The company said demand for filtering facilities continued to rise as clients in the semiconductor and electronics sectors increased capital expenditure and built new plants. The relocation of plants by clients seeking to diversify risks also helped boost sales, it said. Revenue in the fourth quarter rose 42.91 percent to NT$163.57 million from a year earlier, while revenue for the full year was NT$590.4 million, up 15.96 percent from 2020.
BANKING
TCB Prague office approved
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has approved Taiwan Cooperative Bank’s (TCB, 合作金庫銀行) application to set up a representative office in Prague, making it the second Taiwanese bank to have a presence in the Czech capital. The representative office would help the bank seek business opportunities and enhance its service in the European market, the commission said in a statement on Friday. The commission approved a similar request by the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (中國輸出入銀行) on Nov. 11. Taiwan Cooperative Bank has representative offices in Beijing and Yangon, Myanmar, as well as 13 overseas branches.
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
‘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
Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) server makers are expected to make major investments in Texas in May after US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and amid his rising tariff threats, Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA, 台灣電子電機公會) chairman Richard Lee (李詩欽) said yesterday. The association led a delegation of seven AI server manufacturers to Washington, as well as the US states of California, Texas and New Mexico, to discuss land and tax issues, as Taiwanese firms speed up their production plans in the US with many of them seeing Texas as their top option for investment, Lee said. The
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