MANUFACTURING
Neo Solar dim last month
Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光), one of the nation’s biggest solar cell makers, yesterday reported a 2.7 percent decline in revenue for last month to NT$1.46 billion (US$46.34 million), citing fewer working days due to the Lunar New Year holiday, which this year fell from Feb. 18 to Monday last week. That compared with January’s revenue of NT$1.5 billion, the company said in a statement. Neo Solar said shipments would grow gradually after demand picks up this year, citing unspecified market researchers’ forecasts of a double-digit percentage annual growth in solar system installation this year. On an annual basis, revenue plunged 37.18 percent from NT$2.34 billion, according to the statement.
SEMICONDUCTORS
SPIL revenue falls on month
Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s No. 2 chip packager, yesterday said revenue fell 5.9 percent sequentially last month to NT$6.48 billion from NT$6.89 billion. That represented an annual growth of 16.2 percent from NT$5.57 billion. SPIL chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) last month projected the company’s revenue would fall to between NT$20 billion and NT$21 billion this quarter, due to seasonal factors.
ELECTRONICS
FocalTech to slash capital
FocalTech Systems Co (敦泰), which makes driver ICs for touchpanels, yesterday said its board had approved a plan to slash 30 percent of its share capital in an effort to boost shareholder interest and returns. The chipmaker plans to cancel about 125 million shares, according to a statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. After the reduction, FocalTech will have 291 million capital shares. The share capital reduction plan needs to be approved by shareholders. A shareholders’ meeting is scheduled for June 10.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Taiwan Mobile inks MOU
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s No. 2 telecom, yesterday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SK Telecom Co to obtain consulting services from the South Korean firm on optimizing long-term evolution (LTE) network efficiency and technology migration. The companies are also set to work together to develop new mobile broadband applications for corporate users. Taiwan Mobile has been working with SK deploying its 3G and LTE networks since 2013, the company said. The company hopes the new cooperation will help it improve its coverage by optimizing its 2G, 3G and LTE technologies. Meanwhile, Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信), the nation’s No. 3 telecom, said it has inked an MOU with HTC Corp (宏達電) to explore strategic collaboration in the 4G LTE area.
ELECTRONICS
Catcher reports growth
Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), which supplies metal casings for Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday reported 63.09 percent annual growth to NT$4.5 billion for last month. On a monthly basis, the figure dropped 24.49 percent from January’s NT$5.96 billion. The company’s sales totaled NT$10.46 billion for the first two months of the year, surging 65.08 percent from last year’s NT$6.34 billion. The firm is set to hold an investors’ conference on March 19.
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
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
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],”
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