Motech Industries Inc (茂迪), the nation’s biggest solar cell producer, yesterday reported a sixth consecutive quarterly loss for last quarter as price rises proved insufficient to outweigh its costs.
Losses widened to NT$1.04 billion (US$35 million) last quarter, from NT$790 million in the third quarter, the company’s financial statement showed.
That brought last year’s losses to NT$5.04 billion, a sharp rise from losses of NT$2.46 billion in 2011.
Prices of solar cells rose 0.83 percent week-on-week to US$0.363 per watt last week, extending a two-month run of increases, according to Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技).
“The market situation is in favor of [solar cell] suppliers because they are raising prices amid a rise in order numbers,” TrendForce said, citing growing demand from Chinese companies amid trade disputes between China and the EU.
Following the lead of the US, the EU in September last year launched an investigation into whether Chinese solar panel producers exported their products to the bloc at prices lower than market value.
The EU is likely to impose anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese solar panels, if it rules that Chinese firms sold their products in this way.
Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), the nation’s biggest solar wafer producer, yesterday posted its best monthly revenue in six months.
The firm’s revenue grew 13.67 percent to NT$923 million last month, aided by price rises of up to 5 percent, compared with January’s NT$812 million.
However, the figure was a 0.2 percent decline from NT$924 million in February in 2011.
Green Energy said demand for its solar wafers was increasing. Its factory utilization exceeded 95 percent during the Lunar New Year holiday that fell last month.
Motech shares rallied 6.86 percent to NT$32.7 yesterday, while Green Energy shares jumped 5.19 percent to NT$28.4.
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],”