COMPUTERS
Compal quarterly sales rise
Contract notebook computer maker Compal Electronics Co (仁寶電腦) yesterday said sales for last quarter dropped 1.5 percent from a year earlier, but grew 0.36 percent from the previous quarter to NT$198.84 billion (US$6.37 billion). The company said it shipped 9.6 million notebook computers last quarter, up 3.22 percent from 9.3 million units in the previous quarter. In the first six months of this year, total sales rose 6.64 percent to NT$397.16 billion.
TEXTILES
Eclat shares surge
Textile maker Eclat Textile Co (儒鴻) yesterday saw shares surge by 9.41 percent after sales for last quarter hit a record high of NT$6.497 billion. The figure was lower than Taishin Securities Investment Advisory Co’s (台新投顧) estimate of NT$6.634 billion. Cumulative sales for the first six months totaled NT$11.43 billion, up 22.03 percent from a year earlier, company data showed. Taishin expects Eclat’s sales and margins to expand further in the second half of the year, as the company stands to be a key beneficiary of improved efficiency at its Vietnamese plants, as well as new product cycle and increased automation in the textile industry. Earnings per share are forecast to reach NT$15.12 this year and NT$17.44 next year, according to Taishin.
PHARMACEUTICALS
PharmaEngine sales climb
Drug developer PharmaEngine Inc (智擎生技) is expected to see record-high earnings of NT$4.22 per share for last quarter, after sales climbed to NT$496.67 million last quarter from NT$4.11 million a year earlier, due to a collection of milestone payments for its new pancreatic cancer drug MM-398 in the US and Europe, Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧) said yesterday. As PharmaEngine plans to file new drug applications in several Asian nations from the second quarter this year onward, the company is expected to collect more milestone and royalty payments in upcoming quarters, which would boost its earnings per share from NT$1.21 last year to NT$5.82 this year and NT$10.97 next year, Jih Sun analyst Chang Li-chun (張立群) said in a note yesterday.
ELECTRONICS
Phison outlook optimistic
Integrated circuit module maker Phison Electronics Corp (群聯) on Wednesday reported weaker-than-expected sales for last quarter, but the company is optimistic about sales this quarter, citing growing embedded multimedia card, solid-state disk module and controller IC businesses. Sales for the second quarter rose 4 percent year-on-year and 1 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$8.44 billion, the company said in a statement. That was 10 percent below Morgan Stanley’s forecast and 5 percent lower than the market consensus estimate. Morgan Stanley attributed the shortfall to the NAND module business, which was likely caused by tight multi-level cell supply.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Tai Tong sales increase
The Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (瓦城泰統集團) on Wednesday reported sales of NT$286.35 million last month, up 14.96 percent year-on-year. The company, which operates five restaurant chains, including Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰國料理), said sales last quarter rose by 21.48 percent year-on-year to NT$850 million, while cumulative sales over the first six months of the year increased 21.15 percent to NT$1.717 billion.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”