Leading machinery maker Hiwin Technologies Co (上銀科技) yesterday said its industrial robot segment might see profit contribution in the second half of this year amid growing demand for automation in China.
“The China Manufacturing 2025 initiative is driving an industrial demand for transformation and upgrading, which we can take advantage of,” Hiwin chairman Eric Chuo (卓永財) said at an investors’ conference in Taipei.
While the firm’s robot business has not yet reached the scale of economy it needs to become profitable, with revenue contributing only 6 percent to the company’s total revenue in the first quarter, and the introduction of Hiwin robotic products to Chinese companies took more time than he had expected, Chuo said the company could see further progress in the robot business over the next two quarters, due to help from local system integrators and its own production allocation.
Hiwin’s medical robots have earned regulatory approval in China, Taiwan and Europe, Chuo said, adding that the firm has sold 10 units of lower limb rehabilitation machines to China and is hoping to ship 20 more units this year.
Chuo said the company’s strategies in the medical area are to focus on hand rehabilitation machines and robots that can assist surgeries, as well as on compact rehabilitation robots for home use, set to hit the market by the end of this year.
In the first quarter, the company’s net income dropped 72.11 percent annually to NT$143.75 million (US$4.41 million), with earnings per share falling to NT$0.53 from last year’s NT$1.92 over the same period, company data showed.
Consolidated revenue decreased 17.96 percent annually to NT$2.98 billion, while gross margin declined to 34 percent from 39.2 percent a year earlier, which the company attributed to last quarter’s slack season in China over the Lunar Year holidays.
Sales contribution in the Asian region decreased to 45 percent in the January-to-March quarter, down 11 percent quarterly, while the European region increased to 31 percent, up 8 percent quarter-on-quarter, the company said.
Looking ahead, Chuo said the company is positive about its business outlook, which is benefiting from the recent devaluation of the New Taiwan dollar and the appreciation of the yen. Revenue and profit this year might outperform last year’s levels, he said.
However, Chuo said any adjustment in exchange rates should be considered as a “neutral” impact on the industry.
“Exchange rates are not the panacea. The government should reduce external interference factors in the market, while the industries have to work hard too,” he said.
Hiwin shares gained 0.38 percent to close at NT$130.5 in Taipei trading yesterday.
Bankers in Hong Kong skipped the summer break as an artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled rush for capital sent share sales to a record, defying a bruising selloff in the city’s stocks. Initial public offerings (IPOs), placements and block trades raised US$47.5 billion in July to last month, the biggest haul ever for the period, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. That pushed fundraising this year above US$92 billion and within reach of the US$112.5 billion record set in 2021. AI has been at the heart of Hong Kong’s deal revival, but this summer brought a new level of intensity. Chinese companies raised ever-larger sums
SILICON ISLAND: When asked about geopolitical tensions, Lisa Su said that ‘Taiwan is absolutely critical to the semiconductor supply chain, and very, very critical for AMD’ Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) yesterday said the company plans to “substantially” increase manufacturing capacity next year through its Taiwanese supply chain, particularly with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related processors continues to outstrip supply. “It is a very exciting time right now for all kinds of compute, and especially on the CPU [central processing unit] side,” Su said during a visit to Taiwan. “The overall market has increased a lot in 2026, and so we have also increased our own supply and capacity in 2026, but I can
INDUSTRY STANDARD: Most global semiconductor companies have tied employee bonuses directly to corporate profits, the union said, urging Micron to do the same Micron Memory Taiwan Co’s (台灣美光) Taoyuan union secured strike authorization yesterday after a six-day vote, ramping up pressure on management to build a reasonable profit-sharing mechanism. Before the strike, the Taoyuan union “encourages” members to join a protest in Taipei on Oct. 19, union chairman Jerry Lin (林哲瑞) told a news conference in Taipei. The union did not rule out staging a snap strike, Lin said. The union has 2,258 registered members, with 88.3 percent backing the strike, he said. The vote comes as Micron’s board of directors is meeting today and tomorrow in the US. The union expects the board to respond
Elon Musk said his business empire would build and operate Terafab independently, quashing speculation about industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) swooping in to run his ambitious chipmaking venture. Based in Texas, the Terafab project is Musk’s effort to break into the business of fabricating chips, in service of his companies Tesla Inc and SpaceXAI. While Musk had said that he was in discussions with TSMC, the trillionaire clarified in an X post yesterday that the only matter under consideration is for TSMC potentially leasing some part of the planned site and would not involve any operational role. “Maybe TSMC
RSS