Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the world’s top manufacturer of switching power supplies, said its manufacturing facilities in Thailand have not fallen victim to flooding and component disruptions were very limited, although it maintained a cautious outlook for the current quarter.
“The plant in Thailand has been spared from the floodwaters because it was built on higher ground,” vice chairman and chief executive Yancey Hai (海英俊) told an investor’s conference yesterday.
“We did feel uneasy when the floods spread southward,” Hai added.
A few component suppliers have been hit by the floods, but disruptions have been minimal, Hai said.
However Delta, which supplies power adapters for notebook computers by Hewlett-Packard Co, Apple Inc and other major PC brands, said its sales would drop in the fourth quarter on softening demand as the global economy flounders while its solar energy business remains a drag.
Overall sales are likely to weaken by 10 percent in the fourth quarter from the July-to-September period when consolidated revenues totaled NT$44.6 billion (US$1.48 billion), Hai said.
The figures represented a mere 2 percent sequential increase from the second quarter and a decline of 9 percent from a year earlier, the company’s report showed.
Net income dropped 38.84 percent year-on-year to NT$2.85 billion last quarter as its energy management segment, which accounted for 18 percent of total revenue, incurred losses of NT$129 million, the report said.
In the first nine months of the year, Delta made NT$8.53 billion net profit, including NT$1.05 billion in foreign exchange gains, the report said. Earnings per share were NT$3.55 in the third quarter, down from NT$5.15 a year earlier.
Regardless, Delta aims to expand its earnings next year, Hai said.
“The gloomy outlook is just not an excuse to stop seeking growth,” Hai said, expecting sales growth in the information appliance, display, server and components segments next year.
Sales of power electronics, the company’s main source of income, contributed NT$28.68 billion in the third quarter, slowing 10 percent from a year earlier, the report said.
Its gross margin improved to 19.2 percent in the third quarter from 19 percent three months earlier and is expected to trend down this quarter on weakening revenues, Hai said.
Operating expenses climbed to NT$5.74 billion in the third quarter, from 5.29 billion a year earlier, as labor costs in China kept rising, providing further incentive to promote automation, Hai said.
Meanwhile, the company is keeping watch for opportunities to acquire distributors in China to boost sales there, Hai said.
The company’s board yesterday approved plans to set up a 100 percent subsidiary, tentatively named Delta Green Life Co (台達綠生活), with a share capital of NT$3 billion.
Delta’s shares closed down 1.07 percent at NT$73.9 yesterday.
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],”