Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達), which makes upstream LED chips and provides downstream packaging services, yesterday said revenue for this year would drop by a low single-digit percentage from last year’s NT$14.52 billion (US$443.63 million) due to falling prices and weak demand.
To cope with tepid demand, Lextar plans to trim its capital spending to between NT$1.2 billion and NT$1.3 billion from an original budget of NT$1.5 billion by suspending a second-phase capacity expansion plan, the company told investors yesterday.
Looking ahead, Lextar said this quarter would be a flat period in terms of shipments, as nascent signs showed that demand was stabilizing.
LED chips used in LCD panel backlights account for 60 percent of the company’s total shipments, while those for LED lighting devices make up the remaining 40 percent.
“We saw some rush orders trickle in for LED lighting lately. We will continue to watch if this will become a stable demand,” Lextar said. “We believe the third quarter or the fourth quarter will be the worst period, and business should pick up [next quarter].”
The company said revenue for this quarter is expected to grow by a low single-digit percentage from last quarter thanks to orders from new customers.
However, average selling prices of the company’s products are expected to drop 7 percent sequentially amid persistent pricing pressure, it added.
Lextar’s revenue guidance for the current quarter is better than the forecast by Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券), which predicted a sequential decline of 5 percent in revenue, according to a report released by the brokerage yesterday.
Yuanta analyst Andrew Chen (陳治宇) raised Lexar’s target price to NT$23.5, expecting that its stock would “move away from its distressed valuation as demand will soon bottom [out].”
However, Chen slashed his forecast for Lextar’s net profit by 26 percent to NT$189 million this year, given that the company’s third-quarter results fell short of his expectations.
Last quarter, net profit shrank by 16.8 percent to NT$36 million, compared with NT$43 million in the second quarter, supported by non-operating income of NT$127 million, according to a financial statement released by the company on Thursday.
Quarterly profit was lower than Chen’s forecast of NT$41 million.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six