Shares of solar cell maker DelSolar Co Ltd (旺能光電) shot up 56.46 percent during its debut on the main bourse yesterday, after the company offered a positive outlook this year on recovering demand.
DelSolar shares rocketed to NT$23 yesterday, from the listing price of NT$14.7, while the TAIEX fell 0.93 percent on renewed concern over the eurozone debt crisis.
Last year, DelSolar, which is 60 percent owned by local power management unit maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), lost NT$2.54 billion (US$86.5 million) as oversupply sent prices plummeting when the debt crisis in Europe cut demand.
IMPROVE
“The worst is over. The company’s operations will improve gradually,” DelSolar chairman R.C. Liang (粱榮昌) told reporters.
After booking NT$1 billion in losses stemming from falling silicon wafer prices based on two silicon wafer supply contracts, DelSolar president Lidon Chen (陳立惇) said the company “aims to return to profit for the full year. We believe we have a good chance” of reaching the goal.
Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday recovering demand gave support to the share price.
Solar cell prices were unchanged week-on-week at US$0.462 per watt, ending a prolonged decline.
STABLE
TrendForce said the solar cell business looks stable as manufacturers have received orders for next month, although concerns about Germany’s plan to trim subsidies on solar panel installations could dampen the recovery in the second half, it said.
DelSolar said sales fell 11.6 percent to NT$489 million last month, from March’s NT$564 million, according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday.
DECLINE
That was a 40.5 percent decline from NT$838 million in the same period last year.
DelSolar reported a net loss of NT$483 million in the first quarter, reversing a net profit of NT$7.98 million, or earnings per share of NT$0.03, the previous 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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained