Deutsche Post DHL Group, one of the world’s leading mail and logistics services providers, yesterday announced a plan to invest between 10 million and 20 million euros (US$10.86 million to US$21.71 million) in Taiwan in the coming years, eyeing good infrastructure and the reliable growth outlook of the nation.
The investment is part of the group’s plan to raise its revenue in emerging market from 22 percent to 30 percent of its global revenue by the end of 2020, a group executive said yesterday.
“This means a substantial increase in absolute revenue growth in emerging markets,” Deutsche Post DHL chief executive Frank Appel told a media briefing on his first visit to Taipei.
Photo: Wang Meng-lun, Taipei Times
The e-commerce sector and the dynamic growth of emerging markets would remain the leading growth drivers for the group’s business in the near term, Appel said.
Among Asia-Pacific markets, Taiwan remains attractive, with an ideal location in the region, good infrastructure and a strong high technology sector, Appel said, adding that Deutsche Post DHL would continue investing in warehouses, gateways and hubs in the nation.
However, Appel said that Taiwan has to drive a technological refresh in view of the decline of a high-tech sector that has focused on PCs, notebooks and smartphones to maintain its growth momentum.
In addition, retaining talent and fostering free-trade and global connections are the two other important issues for Taiwan’s sustainable economic development, he said.
Appel said the sharp decline in global crude oil prices from late last year would have a limited impact on Deutsche Post DHL’s business, as the group lowers the surcharge it charges its customers simultaneously.
Deutsche Post DHL’s revenue in the 2014 fiscal year totaled 56.6 billion euros, up 3.1 percent from the 54.9 billion euros recorded in fiscal year of 2013, the group said in a statement.
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