AWARDS
Asustek named top brand
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) has been named the top Taiwanese global brand for the year on an annual list released yesterday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The ministry praised the computer maker, which was also the top brand on the 20-company list last year, for outstanding innovation and nimble adaptation to market needs, which helped it earn a brand value of US$1.723 billion last year. Internet security firm Trend Micro Inc (趨勢科技) ranked second, one notch up from the previous year, and Want Want China Holdings Ltd (中國旺旺控股), which has diverse interests including food making and news media, was third. The survey was conducted by consultancy firm Interbrand.
COMPUTERS
Acer founder touts growth
Acer Inc (宏電) founder and former chairman Stan Shih (施振榮) said yesterday that the PC maker is showing signs of regaining its growth momentum, thanks to its organizational restructuring. Acer employee morale also has improved since the company changed its corporate culture, Shih said at a press briefing the day before his 70th birthday. Acer reported operating income of NT$1.10 billion (US$36.27 million) and an operating margin of 1.3 percent for the third quarter, showing a profit for the third straight quarter and the highest margin in three quarters. The company aims to maintain its steady growth momentum this quarter amid seasonal promotions.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC to produce in China
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, on Tuesday said it has plans to produce a small volume of mobile chips in China made on its mature 28 nanometer (nm) manufacturing technology. The production in China is expected to account for less than 10 percent of TSMC’s planned 28nm capacity expansion, TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) said at a press conference. “If we don’t go there, Samsung will,” Chang said of his firm’s main competitor, adding that the South Korean electronics giant has been aggressively making logic chips for use in mobile devices over the past two to three years. In the past quarter, chips made on TSMC’s advanced 20nm process made up 9 percent of its total sales, while those made on its 28nm process made up 34 percent.
TRADE
Thirty-one deals inked
Representatives from Taiwanese and Chinese corporations signed 31 agreements and memorandums of understanding at a two-day Cross-Strait CEO Summit that closed on Tuesday, including 24 deals focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises and the cultural and creative industry. Next year’s summit is to be held in Nanjing, China, but the exact date has not yet been set, said former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), who was the lead coordinator of the event.
PROPERTY
Asia dominates office prices
London’s West End remained the world’s highest-priced office market, but Asia continued to dominate the world’s most expensive office locations, accounting for three of the top five markets, according to CBRE Research’s semi-annual Global Prime Office Occupancy Costs survey. The study also found that prime rents are rising fastest in the Americas, where real-estate fundamentals continue to improve. Overall, the US accounted for five of the 10 markets with the fastest-growing prime occupancy costs, CBRE said in a press release.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by