Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) said yesterday Taiwanese flat-panel makers will be the company's biggest providers of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels used for notebook computers and new consumer electronics this year.
AU Optronics Corp (
"As Taiwanese companies have great [production] flexibility, a big portion of LCD displays used for HP laptop computers will come from local companies," Rosemary Ho (何薇玲), HP Taiwan's managing director, told reporters at an annual press conference yesterday. said.
After having developed a close relationship with domestic suppliers over the past few years, HP is already the biggest buyer of electronic goods from Taiwanese companies among foreign high-tech companies with procurement offices in the country.
The US computer giant was expected to purchase about US$15.5 billion-US$16.5 billion worth of Taiwan-made goods last year, up nearly 10 percent from 2002, according to preliminary figures from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Dell Inc and Sony Corp will be the second-largest and third-largest, purchasing about US$6 billion-US$7 billion and US$4 billion-US$5 billion last year, respectively, the ministry said.
The ministry is scheduled to release a final report on international procurement offices' purchases of local electronics later this month.
The procurement offices of foreign companies were expected to buy a total of some US$49 billion worth of electronics last year, up 13 percent from US$43 billion the previous year.
A ministry official, who requested anonymity, said HP is likely to increase its orders from domestic companies by about 11.9 percent this year, a similar growth rate with that of Taiwan's hardware production value during the same period.
The semi-official Marketing Intelligence Center (
Ho said the Taiwan branch of HP is expected to see annual revenue grow at least triple the nation's rate of GDP growth this year, buoyed by higher domestic laptop computer shipments and improvements in other business area.
That means HP Taiwan's revenue growth should be about 13 percent this year, compared with the government's forecast of 4.13 percent economic growth.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
RSS