Asustek Computer Inc (
The personnel downsizing is a part of Asustek's manpower restructuring scheme, mainly because of production outsourcing, as well as the new labor pension fund system coming into practice starting this month, which adds costs for employers, the report said.
Production will be shifted to Asustek's yet-to-be finished factory in Shanghai, where the company has pumped in about US$1.5 billion and will be Asustek's largest production base for churning out notebook computers, handsets and liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs, according to the report.
While planning to dismiss 1,000 workers, Asustek is also recruiting another 1,000 salespeople to strengthen its marketing division, the report said.
Asustek has nearly 8,000 employees in Taiwan with 3,000 production-line operators.
The layoff has triggered a labor dispute in Asustek's factory in Taoyuan County, as the factory sacked 56 local workers and hired foreign laborers instead over the past two months, the report said. In addition, at the end of last month, 500 workers were told they must leave their posts on the production line, it said.
Responding to the issue, Asustek said outsourcing production is an inevitable trend in the electronics manufacturing industry, so it must adjust its manpower structure to enhance competitiveness, the report said, without identifying the source.
The company will follow regulations stipulated by the Labor Standards Law (
Goldman Sachs raised its target share price for Asustek from NT$99 to NT$108, from "in accordance with market expectations" to "exceed market expectations" in its latest study, given the company's better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter.
Shares of Asustek climbed NT$0.9 to close at NT$95.9 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange last Friday.
Sales of Asustek declined merely 7.5 percent in the slack second quarter from the previous one with shipments of notebook computers growing by 4 percent. As a result, Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for Asustek's profit in the second quarter to NT$3.9 billion from NT$3.5 billion.
Asustek's comparatively low price-earning (P/E) ratio of 12.7 also brings advantages over its competitors in motherboard manufacturing, according to Goldman Sachs. Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉科技) reported a P/E ratio of 16.7, Micro-Star International Co (微星科技) posted 14.1 and Elitegroup Computer Systems Co's (精英電腦) ratio is as high as 25.8.
While foreseeing a bright second half of the year, Goldman Sachs said Asustek still needs to solve the conflict between its brandname products and original equipment manufacturing orders, as well as counter the threat posed by competitors such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
FORESEEABLE CONSEQUENCES: New technology always comes with new innovations by the iniquitous in exploiting users for financial gain or more nefarious ends Artificial intelligence (AI) “agents” say they can save users time and energy by automating tasks, but the growing power of systems such as OpenClaw is putting cybersecurity experts on edge. Powered by a wave of hype, OpenClaw today says it has more than three million users worldwide. The system allows users to create so-called agents, tools based on a large language model (LLM) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic PBC’s Claude, that can carry out online tasks. “We’ve moved from an AI you could talk with via a chatbot to an agentic AI, which can take action... the threat and the risks are
RSS