Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, yesterday posted better-than-expected net profits, helped by faster integration and recovering demand for TV panels.
Net income nearly tripled to NT$9.54 billion (US$301 million), or NT$1.43 per share, in the second quarter, compared with NT$3.39 billion, or NT$0.87 per share, in the first quarter, according to a company statement.
Gross margin climbed to 12.8 percent last quarter from 10.3 percent in the first quarter.
“The results have greatly exceeded the market’s expectations,” an analyst with Fubon Securities Investment Services Co Ltd (富邦投顧) said. “We are impressed by the company’s integration efficiency, which will help boost profits in the future.”
Most analysts had expected the synergy to happen about a year after the integration of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) and TPO Display Co (統寶光電) on March 18, he said.
“We have completed the first wave of integrating the three companies by re-locating our Chinese factories in Shenzhen, Ningbo and Nanjing and we are planning to do make structural adjustment,” chief executive Tuan Hsing-Chien (段行建) told an teleconference.
Tuan also said the company hoped to grow its monitor and TV assembling businesses, easing investors’ concern that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Chimei’s biggest stakeholder, would take over the businesses, as some media have reported.
“The speculation is not correct,” Tuan said.
Chimei has a shipment target of just under 40 million LCD monitors and about 5 million TVs this year, he said.
Given the outlook for the current quarter, Chimei financial executive Eddie Chen (陳彥松) said shipments of PC and TV panels would be flat or fall slightly, compared with last quarter’s 33.89 million units, of which TV panels accounted for 41 percent.
Panel prices could come down by single digit percent, from US$119 per unit because of excess inventories and an increase in panel supply, the company said. In the second quarter, prices increased 4.4 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Chimei plans to invest between NT$80 billion and NT$100 billion on capacity expansion this year.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
RSS