Canadian phone-equipment maker Nortel’s sudden bankruptcy filing on Wednesday sent ripples through local contract manufacturers yesterday.
Wistron Co (緯創) released a statement on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday to announce a possible loss of NT$200 million (US$5.99 million), or NT$0.13 per share, related to Nortel Networks Corp’s collapse.
Wistron said it had been in business with Nortel for many years, and it was currently in talks with Nortel to collect due payments.
Since Wistron’s main product focus lies in personal computers, its stock only slid NT$0.70 or 2.85 percent to close at NT$23.85.
Nortel is seeking bankruptcy protection in Canadian, US and UK courts, the company announced on Wednesday. The company also saw revenues drop due to fierce competition in Internet-related equipment and traditional telecom systems.
In Taiwan, several suppliers of telecom components to the company with varying exposures saw their stocks decline yesterday.
Alpha Networks Inc (明泰科技) and Accton Technology Corp (智邦科技), which focus on the manufacturing of wireless adaptors/routers and WiMAX customer premises equipment, dropped NT$0.43 and NT$0.38 yesterday to close at NT$16.05 and NT$7.35, respectively.
While D-Link Corp (友訊科技) isn’t a direct supplier to Nortel, its stock suffered a 6 percent drop on the day to NT$18.90 due to its 38 percent ownership in Alpha Networks.
Hitron Technologies Inc (仲琦科技) closed down limit to NT$6.15.
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PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products