EQUITIES
Fears send TAIEX plunging
The TAIEX took a beating yesterday, tumbling almost 300 points, as market sentiment was roiled by fears of potential rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve and over military tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The bellwether electronics sector came under heavy downward pressure, falling 1.61 percent, with the semiconductor subindex down 1.75 percent, led by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). The TAIEX closed down 287.92 points, or 1.60 percent, at 17,701.12. Turnover totaled NT$269.410 billion (US$9.72 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$47.35 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. TSMC lost 1.84 percent to close at NT$641, and its losses contributed about 100 points to the TAIEX’s decline.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Powerchip outlook upbeat
Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) yesterday said it is optimistic about its operations this year. It expects annual revenue to increase 21.9 percent to more than NT$80 billion on the back of rising average selling prices, while net profit is forecast to grow 24.3 percent to more than NT$20 billion. Last year’s operating performance was in line with expectations, with revenue of NT$65.62 billion, gross margin of 42 percent and net profit of NT$16.09 billion, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told an online investors’ conference. That translated into earnings per share of NT$4.92, Huang said. At present, 70 to 80 percent of the company’s memory and logic production capacity has been booked by customers, he said. Product prices would not rise as much as last year, with average selling prices likely to increase by 5 to 10 percent, Huang said.
MANUFACTURING
Wah Lee buys 13 plots
Wah Lee Industrial Corp (華立), a supplier of industrial materials and equipment, yesterday said it has purchased several plots of land in Tainan, as it plans to set up a southern logistics center there. The company said in a regulatory filing that it has acquired 13 plots for about NT$1.2 billion. Wah Lee said its board of directors had authorized the firm’s chairman to handle price negotiations, payment terms and the signing of contracts for the purchase. As the company cannot register farming and grazing land under its name, it has temporarily registered the land under Wah Lee chief executive officer Gary Chang’s (張尊賢) name, it said, adding that it has taken all necessary precautionary measures to protect the rights of the company.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Hon Hai to redraw prizes
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that some of its employees were not able to join prize draws during an annual online event on Sunday due to a system malfunction. To protect the rights and interests of the affected employees, the company would redraw prizes for them, with the original prize winners remaining unchanged, Hon Hai said in a statement. Local media reported yesterday that some of Hon Hai’s employees were excluded from the prize draws, which included vehicles and cash, due to problems importing the lottery list into the company’s lottery system. Hon Hai said that it provided employees who did not win any prize draws with a participation award of NT$16,888 each.
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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