ENGINEERING
Siemens AG raises outlook
Siemens AG raised its profit outlook for the year, in a surprise move that highlights the company’s confidence the German maker of gas turbines and medical scanners can ride out a slowdown in China and sharp drop in oil prices. “We have a lot of self- help potential” for achieving 2020 growth targets, Siemens chief executive officer Joe Kaeser said in an interview with Bloomberg TV yesterday. Kaeser has pledged that the company, which also builds trains, would return to growth this year after several years of stagnating earnings, and that the remainder of a 1 billion euro (US$1.08 billion) cost reduction program would be completed. Full-year earnings per share will be between 6 euros and 6.40 euros, higher than a previous forecast of 5.90 euros to 6.20 euros, the Munich-based company said in a statement after the market closed on Monday.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai profits plummet
A strong local currency and slowing sales in the key Chinese market pummeled South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co last year, with the automaker yesterday reporting its lowest annual profit in five years. Hyundai, along with its smaller affiliate Kia, forms the world’s fifth-largest automaking group. The firm’s net profit has fallen for three consecutive years since 2013 as a strong won, coupled with a weakening yen, blunted its price competitiveness against Japanese rivals in global markets. Net profit for last year was 6.5 trillion won (US$5.4 billion), down 15 percent from 2014 and the lowest since 2010, according to a statement from Hyundai. Sales in two major emerging markets, Russia and Brazil, are expected to shrink this year, chief financial officer Lee Won-Hee said, as well as in China, which accounts for about 20 percent of the firm’s entire sales.
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
Royal Philips’ earnings rise
Royal Philips NV, the Dutch company that is separating lighting operations to focus on healthcare equipment, reported better-than-estimated profit in the fourth quarter as demand for medical gear in the US and China increased. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortization rose 13 percent to 842 million euros, the Amsterdam-based company said in a statement yesterday. That compares with an average estimate by analysts of 798 million euros. Sales gained 8 percent to 7.1 billion euros, in line with estimates. “Overall, 2015 was a solid year for Philips,” chief executive officer Frans van Houten said in the statement. “For 2016, we continue to expect modest comparable sales growth.”
ELECTRONICS
Sony to buy Altair
Sony Corp agreed to buy Altair Semiconductor Ltd for US$212 million, acquiring technology to power the next generation of smart appliances as the firm looks for growth beyond chips for smartphone cameras. Altair, with modem chips for 4G cellular technology, is to help the company make component devices featuring both sensing and communication capabilities, Sony said in a statement yesterday. Altair, based in Hod Hasharon, Israel, makes chipsets that can connect security systems, power meters and cars to the Internet with the deal due to close next month. Sony chief executive officer Kazuo Hirai is moving the Tokyo-based company away from consumer electronics to focus on growth in image sensors, video games and movies. It agreed to buy Toshiba Corp’s image sensor operations last year to build up its chip business with growth in its devices unit contributing to the firm’s return to profit.
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