Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
Hon Hai's net income probably rose to NT$6 billion (US$177 million) from NT$4.1 billion a year earlier, based on the median estimate of five analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.
The company, which said it will announce earnings this month, earlier reported sales rose 53 percent to NT$98.2 billion.
Sales at Hon Hai, which makes PlayStation 2 game consoles for Sony Corp and personal computers for Hewlett-Packard Co, have picked up since the second quarter when biggest customer Sony shipped fewer consoles amid the SARS epidemic.
Also boosting earnings, Hon Hai is moving some of its production to China to cut costs, analysts said.
"The company had a turnaround in July supported by game consoles and personal computers," said William Fong (
"Hon Hai's income from investments in China increased," he said.
Hon Hai posted sales growth of more than 35 percent every quarter since at least 1998 until the SARS outbreak. Revenue in the second quarter grew 6 percent.
The company's shares have gained 53 percent this year, compared with a 35 percent rise on the TAIEX.
Hon Hai's third-quarter results may affirm signs of a recovery in the global electronics industry.
Flextronics, the world's biggest maker of electronics for other companies, on Aug. 19 forecast sales in the July-September period would be at least as high as a year earlier. Solectron Corp, which has had losses for 10 straight quarters, said it expects to return to profit in the quarter ending Aug. 31 next year.
Hon Hai provides little information on its operations, according to analysts.
Fong said he tracks the company by talking to Hon Hai employees and collecting data from its customers.
Grace Chen (
"We couldn't provide much value added in our coverage," she said. "The information Hon Hai provides is quite limited."
Hon Hai's return on equity was 27 percent last year, the highest of the nation's 20 largest companies by sales.
The company's debt-to-assets ratio last year declined to 4.8 percent from 9.4 percent in 2001 and 20.6 percent in 2000. The company has to pay NT$32.4 billion of bonds that mature between 2005 and 2008, according to Bloomberg data.
Standard & Poor's has assigned a BBB rating to Hon Hai's debt, the second lowest of 10 investment grades.
The company is diversifying, taking a stake in a NT$10 billion flat-panel display venture that will be 50 percent privately owned by Hon Hai chairman Terry Kuo (
Kuo sold some of his shares in Hon Hai to buy a stake in the venture, Innolux Display Corp, which will make screens for wall-mounted televisions and other products.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”