Wang Jyh-chau (王志超), the newly appointed president of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), said last week that the worst of the economic crisis was over, but it was still too early to talk about economic recovery, which would require further observation.
Wang was unexpectedly handpicked by Chi Mei founder Hsu Wen-lung (許文龍) late last month to lead the nation’s second-largest supplier of liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels.
Meeting with local press for the first time on Thursday, Wang said that he had a lot of pressure on his shoulders, but promised to actively deal with upcoming challenges.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHI MEI OPTOELECTRONICS
Over the past 10 years, Wang said Chi Mei had long suffered from a shortage of staff because of its continued efforts to build plants and expand capacity to keep up with market growth.
The company began to consider slowing down its panel investment last year when it celebrated its 10th anniversary. Not long after that, the company was hit by the global financial crisis, which gave it an opportunity to fix the over-expansion problem, Wang said.
In December last year, the Tainan-based company shed nearly 80 percent, or 3,000 of its contract workers, the largest layoff in the company’s 10-year history.
Wang said LCD monitors would continue to replace cathode ray tubes, while plasma display panels were no longer a competitor for LCDs, which shows that thin-film transistor technology dominates the monitor market, he said.
“The panel industry is not a sunset industry,” Wang said. “The market is only growing at a slower pace.”
The market will see another wave of growth once public information displays gain popularity, he said.
In the future, Wang said Chi Mei would not seek high growth, but rather follow a practical strategy. Moreover, the company will transform itself from a production-oriented company to a customer service-oriented company.
Wang said he hoped that Chi Mei could develop its own unique business model and distance itself from AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Samsung Electronics Co and LG Display Co, and end its reputation as a “second-tier maker” with some institutional investors.
As a result, Wang said there was no timetable to resume the construction of the company’s 8.5 generation (8.5G) line, which was halted.
Based on Chi Mei’s current technologies, Wang said it was not a problem for the company to build its own 10G and 11G lines, but the company would also have to take the efficiency of the glass substrate and customer demand into consideration.
Under the new organizational structure, Chi Mei will focus on four main areas of business, including operation centers, technology research centers, financial and administrative service centers, and global operational headquarters, he said.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”