DISPLAY PANELS
Innolux revenue plunges
Innolux Corp (群創), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, yesterday posted a 21.1 percent decline in revenue for last month after shipments fell after a strong earthquake disrupted production. The company expects production to gradually recover from this month. Revenue dropped to NT$16.63 billion (US$500.53 million) last month, compared with NT$21.09 billion in January. Shipments of TV and PC panels shrank 19.3 percent sequentially to 6.68 million units last month. Shipments of smaller panels used in handheld devices plunged 34 percent month-on-month last month.
SEMICONDUCTORS
UMC revenue drops 21%
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday posted its poorest monthly revenue for last month, but the contract chipmaker said it would keep its business outlook for this quarter unchanged. Revenue plunged 21 percent to NT$9.48 billion last month, from January’s NT$12 billion. UMC blamed the impact of a major earthquake and fewer working days for the decline. UMC implied that revenues this quarter would contract 5 percent sequentially due to inventory correction. UMC predicted that shipments would fall 5 percent this quarter from last quarter, while prices would fall by less than 1 percent sequentially. Separately, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), which makes drive ICs for LCD panels, yesterday said revenue rose 0.54 percent to NT$2.02 billion last month from NT$2.01 billion a month earlier. Vanguard company spokesperson D.L. Tseng (曾棟樑) attributed the increase to a growth in wafer shipments.
FINANCE
Cathay profit drops 46%
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s biggest financial services provider, yesterday posted a 46 percent decline in net profit for last month. Net profit fell to NT$2.15 billion last month, from NT$4.09 billion in January. Its banking unit, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), was the biggest profit source by making NT$1.55 billion of net profit last month, down from NT$2.47 billion. Life insurance arm Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) grew its net profit by 4.49 percent to NT$1.63 billion from NT$1.56 billion the previous month.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
PHN131 trials successful
PhytoHealth Corp (懷特生技) said that it is seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration for PHN131, a post-operative pain relief drug before the end of this year. The company on Tuesday announced at a briefing at the Taiwan Stock Exchange that clinical trial results have proven the efficacy of the drug. Differing from competing injection treatments, the drug is proven to have low addictiveness and is administered in capsules, the company said.
HOSPITALITY
Bureau, Rakuten sign MOU
Rakuten Travel, the biggest online hotel reservation company in Japan, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation with Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau yesterday. Under the MOU, Rakuten is to provide more tour and hotel booking options with the aim of increasing bilateral visits between Taiwan and Japan to 10 million by 2020. Rakuten said Taiwan has always been one of the most popular overseas destinations for Japanese tourists. Last year, about 1.63 million Japanese visited Taiwan, and the number of Japanese visitors booking through Rakuten was 8 percent higher than average bookings through agents.
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