TIER boosts GDP outlook
The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for national GDP growth this year to 3.44 percent, citing steady improvements in private consumption and investment, as well as strong growth in exports driven by a robust demand for new consumer electronics.
The latest forecast was up from the 3.28 percent annual growth that the institute forecast in July.
For next year, the Taipei-based think tank said the economy could expand by 3.48 percent, despite some uncertainties in the global economy.
Siliconware posts results
Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the nation’s second-largest chip packager and tester, on Wednesday said consolidated revenue for last month rose 12.6 percent year-on-year and 1.72 percent month-on-month to NT$7.38 billion (US$241.45 million).
Total revenue for the first 10 months of the year increased 20.95 percent to NT$69.02 billion from a year earlier, Siliconware said.
Revenue for this quarter is expected to be between NT$19.7 billion and NT$21 billion, down by between 3 and 9 percent from last quarter, the company said in a conference call last month.
Yageo hit by slow season
Yageo Corp (國巨), the nation’s largest passive components maker, on Wednesday said consolidated sales rose to NT$2.12 billion last month, up 6.5 percent from a year earlier. However, the figure was down 13.4 percent from the previous month, as the slow season effect sapped sales in the Greater China region, Europe and North America.
Sales in the first 10 months of the year increased to NT$22.93 billion, 9.7 percent higher than the same period a year ago, Yageo said in a stock exchange filing.
Lextar posts NT$310m profit
Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達電子), which manufactures LED chips and provides packaging services, on Wednesday said it made a net profit of NT$310 million in the past quarter, its best performance since the second quarter of last year, when it reported a net profit of NT$307 million.
Earnings per share were NT$0.59 last quarter, compared with NT$0.35 a year earlier and NT$0.32 in the previous quarter, while gross margin rose to 16.8 percent from the year-earlier level of 15 percent and 14.5 percent the previous quarter, as cost reductions and efficiency improvements more than offset the decline in average selling prices.
For this quarter, Lextar expects revenue to fall by about 15 percent from the record level of NT$4.17 billion last quarter, due to seasonal factors, while gross margin might also trend down due to lower factory utilization and falling prices.
VietJet eyes Taiwan market
Vietnam-based budget airline VietJet on Wednesday said it was planning to explore the travel market between Taiwan and Vietnam in advance of launching a Taoyuan-Ho Chi Minh route on Dec. 12.
The new route could be especially popular among Vietnamese living in Taiwan, many of whom are workers or married to Taiwanese, VietJet Business Development Manager Desmond Lin (林義晃) said.
Government statistics show that Taiwan is home to more than 90,000 Vietnamese citizens and immigrants married to Taiwanese nationals.
VietJet plans to operate five round trips per week — excluding Thursdays and Saturdays — using Airbus 320 jets.
TV panels show meager growth
Global shipments of LCD panels used in televisions are forecast to increase by 3 percent next year from this year due in part to the limited capacity of Taiwan’s Innolux Corp (群創光電) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), David Hsieh (謝勤益), vice president of the Greater China market at NPD DisplaySearch, said in a report on Monday.
Combined shipment volume target for next year is 257 million units, compared with an estimated 249 million units for this year, Hsieh said.
However, the total surface area of the panels shipped next year should grow substantially, as strong growth is projected for large TV panels, he said.
LED market tipped to rise
LEDinside, an industry research center, on Tuesday predicted the value of the global lighting market would reach US$82.1 billion next year, of which LED lighting will take up nearly one-third at US$25.7 billion.
The LED market penetration rate will reach 31 percent next year, the research group said in a report.
Europe will have the largest market stake, with 23 percent of worldwide LED lighting next year, China will take a 21 percent market share, while the US will hold 19 percent and Japan 9 percent, the report said.
The Chinese market will see increasingly tense price competition because of the large number of suppliers in the nation, LEDinside said.
ITRI, MediaTek win honors
Thomson Reuters yesterday selected the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among its top 100 global innovators for this year.
The mass media and information firm said 46 Asian companies were ranked on the top-100 innovators list this year, with two from Taiwan, 39 from Japan, four from South Korea and one from China.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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