STEELMAKERS
China Steel sees profit jump
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday said pre-tax profit last month surged to NT$1.55 billion (US$47.37 million), compared with March’s pre-tax profit of NT$899 million. That brought the company’s total pre-tax profit in the first four months of this year to NT$2.38 billion, according to a company statement. The company lost NT$318 million before taxes in January. Revenue last month declined 7.44 percent to NT$22.88 billion from March’s NT$24.72 billion. The firm’s carbon steel shipments last month fell to 957,813 tonnes, down by 6.33 percent from 1.02 milion tonnes shipped a month earlier.
SMARTPHONES
Samsung retains its lead
Samsung Electronics Co’s smartphone sales dominated Taiwan’s market last month, with its share reaching 25.1 percent in terms of shipments, according to statistics compiled by local retail channels. Apple Inc, which last month launched its iPhone SE locally, was ranked second with a 16.6 percent share, the statistics showed. Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) followed closely behind the US company with a share of 16.58 percent. Altogether, 650,000 smartphones were sold in Taiwan last month, with Samsung’s Galaxy J7 being the most popular device, the statistics showed.
INTERNET
Awards reflect focus on IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) has this year grown closer to being a part of people’s everyday life, as seen in the results of this year’s Computex Taipei Best Choice Award contest yesterday. An air quality sensor from Kingmax Digital Inc (勝創) is one example. The USB key-sized device can help monitor indoor air quality via an Android-based smartphone app to remind consumers to take precautionary measures. Amaryllo International BV’s new home security robots employ audio sensors and a smart sensor network to not only automatically track intruders, but also identify family members through facial recognition software. Meanwhile, a chopstick sanitizer developed by the Industrial Technology Research Institute could help improve hygiene through the combination of laser and LED technologies. The three devices were among 36 products that won Best Choice Awards, event organizer Taipei Computer Association said.
ELECTRONICS
Quakes affect Sony results
Sony Corp yesterday said a pair of earthquakes in Japan last month would dent its financial results, while the company warned that net profit would fall by nearly half, largely due to a high comparison base. “Due to the impact of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, sales [in certain divisions] are expected to be lower than the level anticipated prior to the earthquakes,” it said. The earthquakes, which caused major damage in southern Kyushu and claimed dozens of lives, would hit operating profit in the fiscal year to March next year by as much as ¥115 billion (US$1.05 billion), Sony said, adding that sales would fall year-on-year. Major firms, including Sony and Toyota Motor Corp, temporarily shuttered factories in the wake of the disaster, hitting production and sales, while costs are also to include repairing damaged buildings. The announcement came as Sony said it would book a net profit of ¥80 billion this year, down nearly 46 percent from the just-ended fiscal year, when it booked a one-time gain from the sale of shares in camera and medical equipment giant Olympus Corp.
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