Earnings fears hit TAIEX
The bourse extended its losses yesterday amid lingering concern over corporate earnings after US chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) reported an unexpected sales decline in the second quarter, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 0.8 percent at 7,251.35, on turnover of NT$74.14 billion (US$2.48 billion).
AMD reported overnight that second-quarter sales fell 11 percent from the first quarter because of weakness in China and Europe. It had estimated an increase of 3 percent.
AUO, HannStar sales rise
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, yesterday said revenue grew 6.4 percent to NT$33.4 billion last month from May’s NT$31.4 billion, according to a company statement.
That brought the company’s second-quarter revenue up 17.4 percent sequentially to NT$95.19 billion.
Shipments of PC and TV panels increased 16.5 percent to 31.75 million units last quarter from the first quarter, while shipments of panels for mobile devices rose 3.6 percent during the same period to 38 million units.
Smaller rival HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) also posted a higher revenue last month, up 4.7 percent month-on-month to NT$2.83 billion.
However, Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), another panel maker, said revenue slipped 1.6 percent to NT$3.6 billion last month, compared with NT$3.65 billion in May.
Panel shipment forecast cut
Flat screen researcher WitsView on Monday cut its forecast for second-quarter global panel shipments by 3 percent.
WitsView, a research arm of Taiwan-based market information advisory firm TrendForce, revised its second-quarter forecast for panel shipment demand at the terminal consumer market from 163.5 million to 158.6 million units, representing a decline of 4.8 percent from the same period last year.
Shipments by the world’s top 10 LCD monitor brands in May reached 10.67 million units, up 4.9 percent from April. but down 0.4 percent from May last year, according to WitsView’s Worldwide LCD Monitor Shipments Report.
Second China bank upgrades
China’s Bank of Communications Co (交通銀行) plans to formally upgrade its representative office in Taipei into a branch on Monday next week, the lender’s local public relations firm said yesterday.
Bank of Communications is one of the top five commercial lenders in China, with more than 2,800 branches covering more than 80 major Chinese cities. It is the second Chinese bank to open a branch in Taiwan after Bank of China (中國銀行) last month.
UMC, Lattice form partnership
United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC, 聯電), the nation’s No. 2 contract chipmaker, yesterday said it had formed a partnership agreement with Lattice Semiconductor Corp and would begin mass producing the US firm’s 40 nanometer (nm) non-volatile products by the end of this year.
UMC will also work with Lattice on its 28nm product line, as 28nm HLP (high-performance, low power) process technology will give Lattice an edge in developing the field programmable gate array, or FPGA, market, UMC said.
NT dollar edges lower
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday retreated against the US dollar, dropping NT$0.01 to close at NT$29.985, as a weakening euro prompted traders in Asia to cut their regional currency holdings, dealers said. Turnover totaled US$730 million.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six