NEC Corp, Japan's largest maker of personal computers, said its orders from Taiwanese suppliers this year would be flat.
"We have enjoyed a long, established relationship with Taiwanese partners," NEC chairman Hajime Sasaki told reporters in Taipei yesterday.
NEC is expected to purchase electronics components and products worth US$3 billion from local original equipment manufacturers, a level similar to last year's, he said.
The Japanese electronics giant, which is the second-largest Japanese procurer after Sony Corp, said on Monday that its annual net profit totaled ?9.2 billion (US$76 million), reversing the ?10 billion loss the previous year. It projected earnings would triple this fiscal year on an expected recovery in its battery and cellphone operations.
NEC, which did not break down quarterly numbers, has been struggling because of slumping cellphone and computer sales combined with costs to restructure its computer chip operations.
The Tokyo-based company mainly buys PC-related products and wireless equipment, including optical modems from Taiwan, said Shinichi Kakimura, president of NEC Taiwan Ltd.
Kakimura said that the company's product portfolio should be the same this year.
Both made the remarks on the sidelines of the NEC Taiwan Solution Fair, held in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of NEC Taiwan.
NEC's procurement level from Taiwan has been stagnant in recent years as a result of switching orders to China, where most IT firms have set up manufacturing bases.
In 2005, NEC spent around US$3 billion in Taiwan, accounting for 12 percent of its global procurement of US$25 billion.
Purchases in 2004 were worth US$2.66 billion, the company said.
NEC, which also sources handsets, servers and memory chips from Taiwan, has partners including Quanta Computer Inc (
Hoping to tap into the strong IT research base here, NEC announced on May 14 it would set up a mobile WiMAX research center in Taiwan by end of the year.
End-to-end live wireless environments using NEC's WiMAX base stations and application service platforms will be provided at the new center.
NEC will open the center to Taiwan's equipment vendors to allow the implementation of inter-operability tests, support service providers and software vendors in the development and verification of application services, it said.
Additional reporting by AP
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last