EXCHANGES
TWSE names new chairman
The Taiwan Stock Exchange’s (TWSE) board members yesterday appointed Sherman Lin (林修銘), former chairman of Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (台灣集保), as its new chairman, while Chien Lih-chung (簡立忠) remains as TWSE president. Lin would take office today, the board said. Aged 57, Lin would be the youngest TWSE head in 60 years, its records showed. Meanwhile, the board directors of Fundrich Securities Co (基富通證券), a Taiwan Depository and Clearing unit, yesterday appointed Chu Han-chiang (朱漢強), a legal representative of the parent firm, as its new chairperson.
TELECOMS
Taiwan Mobile hikes wages
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) yesterday said it has stepped up salary hikes for employees to 7 percent this year in an effort to retain talent and help employees amid rising inflation. The wage hikes are higher than the 5.5 percent increases offered by Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) for new employees, Taiwan Mobile said in a statement. On average, Taiwan Mobile employees receive about 18 months of salary a year, the statement said. The telecom operator said that it has a hybrid working model, with employees allowed to work from home 10 days a month.
ENERGY
HD dividend approved
HD Renewable Energy Co (泓德能源) yesterday said that shareholders have approved a cash dividend distribution of NT$2 per common share, a payout ratio of 66.23 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$3.02 last year. Shareholders also approved a plan to list the company’s shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. With new green energy facilities launching operations this year, HD Renewable Energy’s revenue was NT$550 million (US$18.5 million) in the first quarter, almost tripling from the same period last year. Earnings per share soared to NT$1.03. The company said it has started building three new solar energy facilities in Tainan and Penghu County with total installed capacity of 100 megawatts a year. The facilities would be completed and connected to the grid by the end of this year, it said.
MANUFACTURING
Returning firms boost rate
Local manufacturers, mostly electronics companies, returning production to Taiwan last year, raised the proportion of locally made products to 48.4 percent of overall output, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous year, a survey conducted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s result was the highest since 2013, the ministry said. Last year’s proportion of goods made in China, including Hong Kong, was 42.4 percent, down 3.1 percentage points from 2020, it said. The ministry attributed the shift to a US-China trade dispute and restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Lower manufacturing costs were also a factor, it said. ASEAN members were favored among local manufacturers when shifting production out of China, with 3.2 percent of goods made in such nations last year, up 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier, it said. That made ASEAN the third-biggest manufacturing region for local manufacturers, the survey showed. About 70 percent of the 127 companies that have expanded production lines did so in Taiwan, the ministry said, adding that Southeast Asian countries were second with about 27 percent.
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.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
ASML Holding NV, the sole producer of the most advanced machines used in semiconductor manufacturing, said geopolitical tensions are harming innovation a day after US President Donald Trump levied massive tariffs that promise to disrupt trade flows across the entire world. “Our industry has been built basically on the ability of people to work together, to innovate together,” ASML chief executive officer Christophe Fouquet said in a recorded message at a Thursday industry event in the Netherlands. Export controls and increasing geopolitical tensions challenge that collaboration, he said, without specifically addressing the new US tariffs. Tech executives in the EU, which is
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