The nation’s biggest solar panel maker, Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), yesterday posted an audited net income for last year that was 93 percent lower than the previous year as prices plummeted because of oversupply after economic woes retrenched demand.
Last year, Green Energy earned NT$115 million (US$3.62 million), or NT$0.82 per share, down from NT$1.47 billion, or NT$12.05 per share in 2008, a company statement read. Gross margin plunged to 3.8 percent from 23.8 percent over the same period.
However, Green Energy sees more positive signs for this year. It is set to unveil expansion plans to increase capacity later this year to satisfy customer demand, the statement read.
The chipmaker’s plants were “fully utilized for three consecutive quarters,” the company said in the statement.
To match the uptrend, Green Energy said it plans to boost ingot growing capacity by nearly 40 percent to 500 megawatts this quarter, up from 360 megawatts at the end of last year.
To support the company’s expansion, the board approved plans to raise funds by selling corporate bonds or 17.97 million new shares in the form of global depositary receipts, overseas or at home.
The plan will be discussed during the annual general shareholder’s meeting scheduled for June 4.
Earlier this year, company president Lin Hur-lon (林和龍) said the chipmaker had been in discussions over whether to raise prices by 3 percent in February. This was in response to a rebound in demand after governments in Europe, Asia and Australia appeared to be resuming or increasing subsidies for solar panel installation after the worst of the economic crisis appeared to be over.
Market researcher Solarbuzz forecasts that the global solar industry is expected to resume high-speed growth over the next five-year period to at least US$100 billion in 2014.
Demand in the second half of last year proved to be robust, setting the stage for 38 percent growth this year, Solarbuzz said in a report released in December.
Last year, revenues in the global solar industry fell by 25 percent year-on-year to US$38 billion, according to Solarbuzz’s statistics.
HSBC Holdings PLC is deepening its commitment to Taiwan as the economy emerges as one of the bank’s fastest-growing markets globally, driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, expanding cross-border trade, and rising wealth creation. “The advantage that Taiwan has is a growth story linked to the semiconductor and broader AI industries, strong underlying corporate performance, and wealth creation,” said Surendra Rosha, HSBC’s co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East, in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on June 2, during this year’s HSBC Taiwan Conference. That combination has helped HSBC cement its position as the most profitable international
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell sharply against the US dollar to close at its lowest level since May 22 amid a massive outflow of funds from the country because of investors panicking over global equity markets. The NT dollar ended at NT$31.580 against the US dollar, slightly lower than its close of NT$31.568 on May 22, after moving between NT$31.5 and NT$31.648 on combined turnover of US$3.062 billion on the Taipei Foreign Exchange and the Cosmos Foreign Exchange. The NT dollar received a significant hit in the morning session, slumping as much as NT$0.173 at a time when other Asian currencies
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is now ranked ninth among the world’s 100 most valuable companies after its market capitalization more than doubled over the past year, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan said in a report last month. TSMC’s market capitalization surged 101 percent year-on-year to US$1.427 trillion as of March 31, the accounting and consulting firm’s 2026 Global Top 100 Companies by Market Capitalization report said. The gain catapulted the world’s largest contract chipmaker from 12th place to ninth in the rankings, and it was the fastest-growing among the global top 10, it said. TSMC was the only Taiwanese company among the top
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported record revenue of NT$416.975 billion (US$13.17 billion) for last month, putting the world’s largest contract chipmaker on track to set a record for quarterly revenue. Last month’s figure surpassed March’s record NT$415.19 billion and represented increases of 1.5 percent from April and 30.1 percent from a year earlier. For the first five months of the year, TSMC generated NT$1.96 trillion in revenue, up 30 percent year-on-year, it said in a statement. TSMC has forecast second-quarter revenue of between US$39 billion and US$40.2 billion, representing sequential growth of about 10 percent and year-on-year growth of about
RSS