Hon Hai revenues break record
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (鴻海精密), which makes iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc, yesterday posted record-high monthly revenues for last month on strong demand for consumer electronics.
Revenues increased 21.67 percent to NT$295.54 billion (US$9.77 billion) from NT$221.78 billion in September, according to an e-mailed statement. Compared to a year ago, revenues rose 17 percent from NT$242.91 billion.
Hon Hai earned NT$2.15 trillion in revenues in the first 10 months of this year, up 17 percent from NT$1.84 trillion in the same period last year.
HTC launches new smartphone
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 4 smartphone maker, launched its 4.7-inch Sensation XL smartphone in Taiwan yesterday and said that two of its Android-powered products already support synchronization with rival Apple Inc’s iTunes music software.
Users of the HTC Sensation XL and the HTC Rhyme can download the HTC Sync application to their personal computers, which will automatically detect iTunes or Windows Media Player to copy media files such as music, pictures and contacts to their phones.
This is the first time HTC has allowed its products to synchronize with software from Apple.
Acer, Compal revenues fall
Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s No. 4 PC brand, yesterday posted NT$36.42 billion in unconsolidated revenues last month, dropping 8.9 percent month-on-month and a decline of 2.63 percent year-on-year amid lackluster PC shipments.
Sales for the first 10 months fell 24.55 percent year-on-year to NT$336.92 billion, according to a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing.
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s No. 2 contract maker of laptop PCs, posted revenues of NT$56.2 billion last month, up 4 percent from the prior month, but dipped 27 percent from the same month last year.
Total revenues for the first 10 months plunged 23 percent from last year to NT$554.67 billion.
Chinatrust to bank in China
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) said yesterday its banking arm, Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中信銀行), has won approval from China to set up a branch in Shanghai, allowing the nation’s top credit-card issuer to expand there.
Chinatrust Financial said it first aimed to establish a subsidiary to facilitate the expansion, but made strategy adjustments in July to meet Chinese regulatory requirements.
The approval made Chinatrust Bank the seventh Taiwanese lender to secure a footing in China.
Taishin names new president
Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) named Joseph Jao (饒世湛), a former president of East West Bank (China) Ltd, its new president, the Taipei-based lender said in a statement to the stock exchange yesterday.
Jao succeeds Chen Long-zheng (陳龍政), who was appointed acting president after Lin Keh-hsiao (林克孝) died in a mountain climbing accident in August.
Tax income beats expectations
The nation’s tax revenues increased 15.6 percent from a year earlier to NT$108.9 billion last month as more corporate income tax revenues were submitted, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
That brought accumulated tax revenues up 10.6 percent compared with the same period last year at NT$1.486 trillion for the first 10 months, the second-highest level in history, ministry statistics showed.
“In terms of current data, we expect tax revenues for this year to grow higher than expected, by about NT$55 billion to NT$60 billion,” said Hsu Ray-lin (許瑞琳), deputy director of the ministry’s statistics department.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure