Taiwan’s leading machinery maker, Hiwin Technologies Co (上銀科技), on Saturday said its new products — the keys to developing “Industry 4.0” — are expected to start volume production next year.
The company said it is in talks with local machinery and semiconductor associations on any future collaboration in Industry 4.0, especially in the integrated circuit (IC) industry.
Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, is a term used to describe an emphasis on smart manufacturing, such as factory automation and environmental surveillance, including Internet of Things (IoT) applications. It could be Taiwan’s core competitive market for the next 50 years or even century, Hiwin chairman Eric Chuo (卓永財) said.
“Hiwin has always been dedicated to promoting Industry 4.0,” Chuo said at an event in Taipei on Saturday. “Our new ball screw and liner guideway products are to begin mass production next year, which is unprecedented.”
Chuo, who is also the president of the Taiwan Machine Tool and Accessory Builders’ Association (台灣工具機暨零組件公會) and the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association (台灣智慧自動化與機器人協會) — did not elaborate on details of the products.
However, he touted the company’s performance in both manufacturing and design, saying that Hiwin’s uniaxial robot has won two major international design awards this year, including a Red Dot Design Award and a iF Product Design Award.
Taiwan is the fourth-largest machine tools exporter in the world, behind Japan, Germany and Italy.
However, in the Industry 4.0 era, the industry needs to address the issue of sensors used in the IoT infrastructure, Chuo said
“We believe Taiwan’s IC design is in a time of transformation,” Chuo said. “Only after we develop industrial ICs and sensors that have a high profit margin can we stop depending on all of our industrial sensors from imports.”
In order to promote Industry 4.0 in Taiwan, Chou said he has invited Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (台灣半導體協會) director-general Nicky Lu (盧超群), POSA Machinery Co (普森精密主軸) president Peng Sen-rong (彭森榮) and representatives from related associations to discuss how to integrate Taiwan’s toolmakers, machinery and semiconductor resources.
Participants in that meeting are scheduled to sign a memorandum of cooperation some time in the next two months, hoping to set up a platform and train more people in industrial IC design, Chuo said.
The company’s board approved plans to construct new plants in Suzhou, China, and in Taichung, costing NT$378.02 million and NT$370 million respectively (US$11.54 million and US$11.29 million).
The board also announced its dividend payout plan of NT$2.3 per share — including a cash dividend of NT$2.19 per share and a stock dividend of 0.5 percent per share — based on earnings per share of NT$6.1 the company made last year. The planned dividend payout is lower than the NT$3.5 Hiwin distributed in 2014.
Hiwin reported that net income plunged 31.71 percent annually to NT$1.64 billion last year, with consolidated revenue decreasing 1.36 percent to NT$14.88 billion.
The weak macro environment and a lack of recovery in the China automation market might have Hiwin see another drop in total revenue and profit this year, Macquarie Capital Securities Ltd said in a note on Feb. 26.
Overall, Taiwanese machinery makers generated NT$968.1 billion in total production value last year, down 0.48 percent from 2014, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) said in January. Output of machine tool industry totaled NT$135.2 billion last year, down 10.4 percent year-on-year, the ITRI said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS