CHIPMAKERS
Winbond to boost facilities
Memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) said yesterday it would increase this year’s capital expenditure to NT$2.075 billion (US$68.9 million) from NT$1.8 billion and set next year’s spending target at NT$2.54 billion, as it plans to develop an advanced manufacturing process and upgrade its production facilities. Winbond also reported net profit of NT$416 million, or earnings per share of NT$0.1, for last quarter, ending seven consecutive quarters of losses, citing rising shipments of products with a higher profit margin. Consolidated revenue was NT$8.846 billion last quarter, up 15 percent from the previous quarter, while gross margin was 23 percent, an increase from 16 percent in the first quarter, the company said.
CASINGS
Catcher’s net profit soars
Metal casing manufacturer Catcher Technology Co (可成科技) said on Wednesday it posted NT$7.57 billion (US$251.3 million) in net profit for the first half of this year, up 77.6 percent from a year earlier. Its earnings per share for the six-month period stood at NT$10.07, up sharply from the NT$5.67 recorded the previous year. In the second quarter, Catcher’s consolidated sales totaled NT$10.46 billion, up 13.3 percent from the first quarter, while its gross margin hit 44.48 percent, up from 41.72 percent in the first quarter. It posted NT$3.64 billion in net profit for the second quarter, down 7.2 percent from the previous quarter.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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