Hon Hai revenue down 8.99%
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which is to assemble the “emotional” robot for Japan’s Softbank Corp, yesterday posted a 8.99 percent monthly decline in revenue for last month at NT$267.97 billion (US$917 million) from April’s NT$294.44 billion.
The company, which is also a major producer of Apple Inc’s iPhones and iPads, attributed the revenue contraction to seasonal weak demand across all segments, including communications, consumer electronics and PCs.
Last month’s figure meant a 10.82 percent reduction from the same month last year’ NT$300.47 billion.
During the five-month period to last month, cumulative revenue rose 3.15 percent to NT$1.45 trillion from NT$1.4 trillion a year ago.
China Steel profits up 5%
China Steel Corp’s (CSC, 中鋼) pretax profit last month grew 5 percent from April to NT$2.195 billion (US$73 million), with total pretax profit in the first five months of the year reaching NT$9.36 billion, the company said in a statement yesterday.
Revenue increased 1 percent to NT$31.01 billion from the previous month, rising 6.24 percent from a year earlier, with cumulative revenue rising 4.69 percent to NT$154.19 billion from the previous year, the statement said.
Compal sales surge by 30%
Contract notebook computer maker Compal Electronics Inc saw its sales for last month rise to their highest monthly level in three years, as it shipped 3.5 million notebook computers during the month, 30 percent more than in April.
Sales rose 18.9 percent from the previous month and 28.3 percent from a year earlier to NT$68 billion (US$2.27 billion) on rapid growth in the notebook computer and smartphone markets, the company said yesterday. In the first five months of the year, the company’s consolidated sales were up 6.6 percent from a year earlier to NT$295.74 billion.
Sony launches Xperia Z2a
Japan’s Sony Mobile Communications yesterday launched the Xperia Z2a smartphone supporting the 700MHz frequency band and Xperia T3 handset for 900MHz and 1,800MHz frequency bands in Taiwan, in a bid to narrow the gap with its rivals in the country’s 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) market.
The company said both the Z2a and T3 will go on sale next month, but did not reveal the pricing of the two devices. Sony has so far released seven 4G smartphones for the Taiwan market.
Mercedes expands in Kaohsiung
Mercedes-Benz Taiwan Ltd (台灣賓士) plans to beef up its presence in Greater Kaohsiung and is to begin work on two more showrooms there this week, the company said yesterday.
In collaboration with local dealers Supreme Motors Co (德冠汽車) and Capital Motors Inc (CMI, 中華賓士), Mercedes-Benz Taiwan will hold groundbreaking ceremonies at the two sites today and tomorrow respectively, as part of a general expansion project, the company said in a statement. The two new showrooms are expected to begin operations next year, the company said.
TAITRA partners with Amazon
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Amazon.com Inc to forge a partnership agreement as the trade promotion body seeks to promote e-commerce platforms, expand overseas markets and boost Taiwan’s exports.
TAITRA’s Taiwantrade Web site features more than 330,000 different products manufactured by about 67,000 local companies, while Amazon provides its services in 65 countries and regions, with 200 million active users worldwide.
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
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts