Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s No. 2 contract laptop computer maker, yesterday said its sales this year are likely to approach a record high of NT$887 billion (US$29.57 billion), bolstered by a rebound in PC demand from emerging markets.
That would represent about 28 percent growth from last year’s NT$692.75 billion.
Compal also expects revenues to hit a new record next year, supported by rising demand for laptops and non-laptop products, president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) said at the company’s annual general meeting.
“We made good progress in our laptop shipments in the first half of the year. Shipments increased 15 to 20 percent sequentially this quarter, beating our earlier estimate,” Chen said.
Compal yesterday raised its laptop shipment target for this year from 41 million units to 42 million units, 7.69 percent annual growth from 39 million units last year.
The company supplies laptops to such brands as Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Dell Inc and Acer Inc (宏碁).
Chen said demand for commercial laptop models had been increasing steadily in emerging markets such as China and India since the fourth quarter of last year, while demand for consumer laptop models had grown more evidently in the US and Europe beginning this quarter.
The growth is expected to persist through the end of the year, since Microsoft Corp ended its support of its Windows XP operating system in April, he added.
Revenues from its mobile device manufacturing business were forecast to account for 25 percent of the company’s total sales this year and more than 30 percent next year, up from an 18 percent share last year, Chen said.
Compal aims to more than double its smartphone and tablet shipments from 17 million units last year to 35 million units this year as part of its product mix diversification efforts.
Shareholders yesterday approved the company’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.5 per share and a 5 percent stock dividend. That translates into a dividend yield of 2.07 percent based on Compal’s share price of NT$24.2 yesterday.
Last year, due to a NT$4.9 billion one-time write-off from its divestment of loss-making telecom subsidiary Vibo Telecom Inc (威寶), Compal reported a 61 percent drop in net profits to NT$2.46 billion, or NT$0.57 per share.
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],”