CHIPMAKERS
Lextar sales plunge
LED chipmaker Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達電子) yesterday reported sales of NT$1.15 billion (US$34.9 million) for last month, a plunge of 18.78 percent from a year ago, but an increase of 5.5 percent from July. Sales totaled NT$9.34 billion in the first eight months of the year, dropping 5.11 percent from NT$9.84 billion in the same period of last year, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) on Aug. 5 forecast the LED chipmaker’s sales this quarter to increase 5.83 percent to NT$3.81 billion from the previous quarter’s NT$3.6 billion on the back of the new orders for LED backlight units. Lextar shares remained unchanged at NT$14.55 in Taipei trading yesterday, while the TAIEX lost 0.18 percent.
CHIPMAKERS
Macronix sales down 3.53%
Memorychip producer Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) yesterday reported unaudited sales of NT$1.89 billion for last month, down 3.53 percent from a year ago, but an increase of 2.16 percent from July. Macronix’s accumulated consolidated sales totaled NT$13.43 billion for the first eight months of the year, a decrease of 0.93 percent compared with NT$13.55 billion in the same period last year, according to the company’s filing with the stock exchange.
AEROSPACE
AIDC sales soar 17.68%
Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空工業), the nation’s largest civilian and military aircraft manufacturer, yesterday reported that its sales last month grew 17.68 percent sequentially to NT$2.47 billion, up 33.95 percent from a year earlier. Sales during the first eight months of this year grew 15.55 percent year-on-year to NT$17.33 billion. AIDC shares yesterday rose 0.7 percent to NT$36.05 in Taipei trading, outperforming the TAIEX, which lost 0.18 percent.
CHIPMAKERS
Nanya revenue rises 1.93%
DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday posted 1.93 percent increase in revenue for last month at NT$3.6 billion, compared with 3.53 billion in July. The figure presents a 19.31 percent decline from NT$4.46 billion in August of last year. In the first eight months, revenue fell 6.62 percent to NT$30.31 billion, compared with NT$32.46 billion in the same period last year. Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a joint venture between Nanya and US memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc, yesterday said revenue fell 5.5 percent last month to NT$4.88 billion from July’s NT$5.16 billion. On an annual basis, revenue shrank 27.3 percent from NT$6.71 billion. Inotera made NT$44.74 billion in revenue over the past eight months, down 18.71 percent from NT$55.04 billion a year ago.
BANKING
Mega’s income down 28.5%
State-run Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) yesterday posted NT$1.61 billion in net income for last month, down 28.5 percent from the same period last year, the group said in a stock filing, as operating conditions became more difficult this year. Banking arm Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) generated NT$1.56 billion in net profit, accounting for 94 percent of the total, the filing said. The securities subsidiary incurred net losses of NT$94 million, the filing said, as the TAIEX shed 5.7 percent last month. Cumulative profits totaled NT$23.92 billion for the first eight months of year, translating into earnings of NT$1.55 per share, the filing 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
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