DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday posted 7 percent sequential growth in operating profit for the second quarter, as stronger-than-expected demand for PCs and mobile devices boosted gross margin to an all-time high.
Nanya Technology expects gross margin and profitability to grow to further record-breaking figures this quarter, citing robust demand for memory chips across the board, including for servers and mobile phones, due to seasonal factors.
“We are seeing [last quarter’s] short supply extend into the third quarter. Demand is resilient,” Nanya Technology spokesman Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told reporters.
“Demand for PCs, especially from corporate users, began picking up in July, causing extra pressure on already tight supply,” Lee said.
He expected that the supply constraint would last throughout the second half of this year.
Operating income surged to NT$4.24 billion (US$141 million) last quarter, compared with NT$3.96 billion in the first quarter. Gross margin jumped to 43.8 percent last quarter due to a 5 percent improvement in manufacturing costs, from 40 percent in the previous quarter.
Net income dropped 0.7 percent sequentially to NT$6.08 billion in the quarter that ended on June 30, compared with NT$6.13 billion in the first quarter, according to the company’s financial statement.
Lee said the slight decline on losses of NT$400 million was due to foreign-exchange factors.
This quarter, the average selling price is expected to rise about 5 percent sequentially and shipments are expected to be flat, Lee said.
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a DRAM chip joint venture between Nanya Technology and Micron Technology Inc, yesterday said its net profit fell 6 percent to NT$10.62 billion last quarter, from NT$11.25 billion in the previous quarter, after booking NT$800 million in foreign-exchange losses for last quarter.
“We do not expect major foreign-exchange losses again this quarter,” Inotera spokesman Peter Shen (沈道邦) told a press conference. “We are optimistic about this quarter’s business.”
“We are seeing strong market demand and there will be room for a price uptick by about 5 percent to 10 percent [sequentially] as some market researchers forecast,” he said.
Gross margin is expected to rise further to hit a new record this quarter, compared with 56 percent last quarter, if chip prices increase as expected, Shen said.
Inotera expects wafer shipments to hold steady, or to drop 3 percent quarter-on-quarter this quarter, because of capacity loss during its pilot production of the most advanced 20-nanometer technology.
To keep shipments steady, Inotera has resumed operations at an idled 12-inch factory, Shen said.
Inotera plans to expand its output of 20-nanometer chips by the end of this year for applications including mobile networking, consumer appliances and other devices.
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