The five-day Computex trade show closed yesterday, with 33,000 foreign buyers and 8,000 visitors having passed through the doors, CNA reported, citing a Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) official.
The report quoted TAITRA vice president Walter Yeh (葉明水) as saying that the number of foreign buyers this year represented an increase of 10 percent from last year.
Buyers from the US again accounted for the largest number of foreign buyers this year, followed by Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China, TAITRA's statistics showed.
PHOTO: REUTERS
But the number of buyers from emerging markets such as Russia, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates also saw a significant increase this year, Yeh said at the closing ceremony yesterday, the Chinese-language business news site Cnyes.com reported.
Orders secured by Taiwanese electronics manufacturers are estimated to be in excess of US$15 billion this year and are expected to reach US$20 billion next year with the completion of a new complex in Taipei's Nankang district, the report quoted Yeh as saying.
Local firms received orders worth US$12.7 billion at last year's event, he said earlier this week.
Computex this year featured 1,333 exhibitors occupying a total of 2,646 booths.
The trade show is scheduled to be held on June 3 to June 7 next year and will be able to accommodate 2,000 exhibitors in 4,500 to 5,000 booths after the completion of the new exhibition complex, Yeh said.
TAITRA organizes Computex along with the Taipei Computer Association (
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by