Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) yesterday said the ministry would provide smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) with assistance, if necessary, to deal with the litigation on patent infringement brought against it by Apple Inc.
Shih told lawmakers at a legislative session that the ministry has kept in close touch with HTC to keep informed of the progress of the litigation.
HTC said on Wednesday that shipments of HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE models to the US market have been delayed by a review of the US Customs requested by the US International Trade Commission (USITC).
INFRINGED
The customs review came after the USITC ruled in December last year that HTC infringed on one of Apple’s patents involving data detection.
HTC shares staged a mild technical rebound to close up 0.73 percent at NT$414 yesterday, following a decline of 6.59 percent in the previous session amid concerns that the shipment delay would impact its second-quarter sales.
SALES GROWTH
On April 24, HTC forecast its sales for the second quarter would reach NT$105 billion (US$3.55 billion), up 55 percent from the first quarter.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch said if the products are detained by the US Customs for four weeks, HTC’s sales for the second quarter will be reduced by 5 percent to 10 percent, while CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets said HTC’s share price will be under pressure in the near term as the market does not like uncertainty.
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
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