MANUFACTURING
Yeong Guan forecasts growth
Yeong Guan Energy Technology Group Co (永冠能源), which produces advanced casting components for specialized applications, yesterday said shipments are expected to increase more than 10 percent to 150,000 tonnes this year. With global demand for wind power turbines stabilizing, Yeong Guan chairman Chang Hsien-ming (張賢銘) told shareholders that the company plans to expand capacity by 75 percent in five years. Shareholders approved the company’s plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$6.36 per share. The company, whose products are used in the fields of energy, industrial machinery, injection molding and medical equipment, reported a net profit of NT$233 million (US$7.5 million) in the first quarter, or NT$2.22 per share.
compact discs
CMC Magnetics shares rise
CMC Magnetics Corp (中環), the country’s largest maker of recordable compact discs, yesterday said its net value per share is expected to reach NT$12.68, after reducing company capital by 17.18 percent. Shareholders yesterday approved the NT$4.44 billion capital reduction scheme to improve the company’s financial structure. Following the reduction, CMC said, its paid-in capital is NT$21.38 billion. The company last year reported a net loss of NT$1.73 billion, or NT$0.67 per share, on consolidated sales of NT$16.14 billion.
GREEN ENERGY
Giga Solar foresees growth
Giga Solar Materials Corp (碩禾) president Huang Wen-jui (黃文瑞) yesterday said business will improve quarter-by-quarter this year. The Hsinchu-based firm focuses on photovoltaic conductive pastes for solar cells, with front-side silver paste, rear-side silver paste and aluminum paste. It reported a net profit of NT$1.49 billion last year, or NT$24.54 per share. Huang said the company’s aluminum paste and rear-side silver paste shipments are leaders in the world market, while front-side silver paste shipments are likely to increase by 50 percent this year from 250 tonnes last year. Shareholders yesterday approved a cash dividend payment of NT$15 per share.
COMPUTERS
Capital upbeat on MiTAC
Contract server maker MiTAC Holdings Corp (神達控股) is expected to grow server revenue further this quarter following more orders from new clients, while the consumer segment will see recovery as traditional low season gradually comes to an end, Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said yesterday in a note. MiTAC’s revenue is estimated to rise 42 percent year-on-year and 24 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$16.67 billion this quarter, driven by bullish growth momentum in both core and non-operating businesses, Capital said. Net income for this quarter may soar 146 percent year-on-year and 78 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$769 million, with earnings per share of NT$0.99, the brokerage said.
RETAILERS
7-Eleven eyes ice growth
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) yesterday said it expects its sales of icy treats to reach NT$2.5 billion (US$80.64 million) this year, from NT$2.2 billion last year, driven by sales of soft ice cream. The operator of 7-Eleven stores said it is scheduled to launch an apple-flavored soft ice cream product from Monday next week, using apples from Japan’s Aomori Prefecture. The firm said fruit-flavored ice products are a popular choice during the summer and the company plans to launch more time-limited fruit-flavored soft ice cream products in the next two months. It said sales of its soft ice cream last year totaled about NT$1 billion. Sales of its ice products last year accounting for about 30 percent of the total market, it said.
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
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],”
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
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day