ELECTRONICS
Inventec dividend approved
Contract electronics maker Inventec Corp (英業達) yesterday said its board has approved plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.4 per share, based on the company’s net profit of NT$5.56 billion (US$171.8 million), or NT$1.55 per share, last year. That translates into a payout ratio of 90.32 percent, the company’s highest payout ratio in six years. However, the dividend is the smallest in three years, according to company data. Inventec’s planned dividend distribution suggests a yield of 6.57 percent, based on the company’s closing price of NT$21.3 in Taipei trading yesterday.
SMARTPHONES
HTC to support VR start-ups
Smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday announced plans to launch a US$100 million investment program to support global virtual reality (VR) start-ups. HTC said the investment is to help cultivate and foster the global VR ecosystem by supporting start-ups, and providing expertise and access to the VR industry. “Virtual reality is changing the world and it needs a healthy ecosystem to expand into the mass market. We look forward to enabling global talent to create interesting and compelling content, and to help shape the future of this industry,” HTC chairwoman and chief executive officer Cher Wang (王雪紅) said.
ECONOMY
Singapore production falls
Singapore’s industrial production last month dropped 0.5 percent from a year earlier, a further sign of weakness in the city-state’s economy. Output has dropped in 13 of the past 14 months, according to the Singapore Economic Development Board. The data point to a possible revision to preliminary figures for first-quarter GDP, which were released earlier this month and showed flat growth on an annualized basis compared with the previous three months.
ELECTRONICS
Canon net profit drops
Japan’s Canon Inc yesterday said its net profit dropped 17.5 percent last quarter, and it downgraded its full-year profit and sales forecasts due to China’s economic slowdown and the yen’s strength. The camera and office equipment giant reported net profit of ¥28 billion (US$253 million) for the first quarter, while operating profit dropped 39.4 percent year-on-year to ¥40.1 billion. Sales ticked down 7 percent to ¥797.2 billion, the company said. Canon said it now expects a net profit of ¥200 billion for the year, down from its earlier estimate of ¥230 billion, on sales of ¥3.6 trillion, compared with an earlier projection of ¥3.85 trillion.
STEELMAKERS
JFE beats forecast
JFE Holdings Inc, Japan’s second-biggest steelmaker, beat its scaled-back profit forecast, while warning that the year ahead is tough to predict due to gyrations in the prices of steel and its raw materials. The Tokyo-based company posted net income of ¥33.7 billion in the year through last month, according to a statement yesterday. That beat its forecast in January, when it halved expectations to ¥25 billion as cheaper steel from China, the world’s top supplier, flooded markets and squeezed margins at Asian mills. JFE cited gains made on the sale of investment securities for the increase. Its full-year result is 76 percent lower compared with last year.
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
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],”