ELECTRONICS
HTC eyes shipments boost
Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said its shipments at home would rise more than 50 percent this quarter from a year earlier and shipments for next quarter would also increase by a double-digit percentage year-on-year. HTC North Asia president Jack Tong (董俊良) said the shipment forecast for next quarter would be higher than this quarter thanks to the launch of the firm’s new flagship One M9. The new product goes on sale on Monday, making Taiwan the first nation in the world to sell HTC’s newest product, he said. The One M9 will initially be available in three colors — dual-tone silver and rose gold, single-tone gunmetal gray and single-tone gold — and priced from NT$21,900 (US$690) for a 32GB model, the firm said.
COMPUTERS
Inventec to reassign workers
Contract PC maker Inventec Corp (英業達) yesterday confirmed that it would conduct a workforce adjustment at its Taoyuan plants at the end of this month to utilize its manpower more efficiently, after local media reported the firm is planning large layoffs. Inventec chief financial officer Yu Chin-pao (游進寶) said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing that the company plans to transfer about 100 of its employees at its computer server business to Inventec Solar Energy Corp (英穩達) to cope with market changes. The solar-energy subsidiary is also based in Taoyuan. Those who do not want to work at Inventec Solar would be offered a severance package better than legal requirements, Yu said in the filing. The latest workforce adjustment came just days after Inventec said on Sunday that the group plans to recruit about 1,000 employees in the next two years to boost its research and development capabilities.
CONSTRUCTION
Huaku dividend lifts sector
Huaku Development Co (華固建設), which earned more than NT$5 per share last year, yesterday saw its shares rise by the 7 percent maximum daily limit after the company on Wednesday announced it would distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share. Huaku posted a net income of NT$1.41 billion last year, or NT$5.08 per share, after consolidated sales of NT$6.44 billion, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. With the company’s shares closing at NT$61 yesterday, the proposed dividend represents a yield of 8.2 percent. The company’s high dividend payout ratio of nearly 100 percent also boosted other construction shares, which advanced 0.94 percent yesterday in Taipei trading, compared with the broader market’s 0.76 percent rise.
MACHINERY
Goodway forecast cut
Yuanta Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) has revised down its price-earnings (PE) ratio estimate for Goodway Machine Corp (程泰機械), which makes computerized numerical control latches, saying the company’s revenue and earnings growth this year may miss its own guidance. Goodway on Wednesday reported earnings of NT$852 million, or NT$6.88 per share, for last year on revenue of NT$7.82 billion, the highest earnings in the firm’s history, but Yuanta believes that Goodway will trade at 14 times PE ratio this year, rather than the 16 times forecast earlier, citing the company’s revenue goal of 28 percent growth year-on-year to NT$10 billion this year as too aggressive. The brokerage is forecasting a more conservative 8 percent year-on-year growth in sales this year, according to a note issued yesterday.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is