Shares of BenQ Corp (明基) dropped by almost 1 percent yesterday, as investors indicated skepticism about the firm's progress in reviving its money-losing handset unit, even if it outsourced all handset production.
The stock price of the nation's top mobile phone maker slid 0.83 percent to end at NT$17.85 after losing ground to early gains in the mid-session yesterday. That brought the stock's decline to 43 percent since the beginning of the year.
BenQ said late on Wednesday that the company was trimming output and the number of employees in its European and Taiwanese factories to boost cost efficiency.
But the company declined to say whether it would ultimately farm out all of its production to other companies as its rivals Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB have been doing, nor did it respond to questions about whether it was in talks with Hong-Kong-listed handset maker Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康控股), or other companies to sell its handset factories in Europe or China.
"It is a good idea for BenQ to think about outsourcing all production of its handsets, though the strategy will not greatly improve its bottom-line," said Daniel Wang (王得善), a handset industry analyst with Taipei-based Primasia Securities.
The strategy of outsourcing manufacturing to other companies would save little, compared to the company's massive operating expense of NT$13.23 billion (US$402 million) last quarter, Wang said.
The major problems faced by BenQ are how to recoup its market share by launching new products faster and targeting the right market segments, Wang said.
"I doubt BenQ can save big money by ending making phones at its factories," Wang said.
BenQ blamed postponement of the unveiling of new handsets in Europe as a primary reason behind the disappointing financial results for the first half of the year, which will also cause a delay in meeting the target of breaking even by the year-end.
As BenQ has failed to fulfill its promise by making significant improvement in narrowing losses during the past quarters, "people wanting to invest long-term will not risk buying the stock now," Wang said.
Wang Deng-cheng (
That would only help BenQ to boost its gross margin to 20 percent in the second half of next year, which would still lag far behind the 30-35 percent enjoyed by major handset vendors such as Sony Ericsson, Wang Deng-cheng forecast.
BenQ posted 7.5 percent in gross margin for the first six months of this year.
The company reported a NT$7.5 billion loss for the first half of the year after it took over Siemens AG's money-losing handset division last October.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last