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.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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