COSMETICS
Dr Wu shares skyrocket
Shares of Dr Wu Skincare Co Ltd (達爾膚生醫科技) yesterday rose 40.96 percent on its debut on the over-the-counter market. The shares at one point climbed to NT$280 — a 48.94 percent rise from their listing price of NT$188 — before retreating to close at NT$265 on the Taipei Exchange. The company was established in March 2003, with a special focus on its own brand of hypoallergenic skincare products. Dr Wu generates about 80 percent of its sales from the Taiwanese market. In the first five months of this year, cumulative sales grew by nearly 50 percent to NT$404 million (US$12.47 million), company data showed.
AUTO PARTS
Tong Yang plans new factory
Autoparts maker Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業) yesterday said that it plans to build a new factory in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China, during the second half of this year to expand its capacity of products, as its original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and after-sales businesses continue growing in Taiwan, China and the US. The company plans to earmark about NT$10 billion in capital spending over the next three years, Tong Yang president and chief executive Crispin Wu (吳永祥) told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting. In the first five months of the year, the company posted pretax profit of NT$1.265 billion, up 132 percent from the same period last year, with earnings per share of NT$2.08, company data showed.
DISPLAY PANELS
Taiwan Display eyes growth
Taiwan Display Inc (台灣顯示器) plans to buy the remaining 20 percent interest in Star World Technology Corp (中日新), which assembles LCD modules used in handheld devices and consumer electronics, for about NT$428 million, the company said yesterday. Taiwan Display will pay NT$21.4 per share to acquire Star World’s common shares in circulation to make it a wholly owned subsidiary, Taiwan Display chairman Jeff Hsu (許庭禎) said. The company expects to close the deal on Nov. 15.
ELECTRONICS
IPhone 7 assemblers ready
Credit Suisse Group AG yesterday said three major iPhone assemblers are preparing for the launch of Apple Inc’s iPhone 7 in September, following its recent conversation with several Apple supply-chain firms. In a note issued yesterday, Credit Suisse analyst Thompson Wu (武光明) said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Wistron Corp (緯創) are to assemble the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus with an order split of 75 to 25 percent, while Hon Hai and Pegatron Corp (和碩) are to assemble the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 with an order split of 65 to 35 percent. As Wistron becomes a new entrant to the iPhone supply chain, the yield issue for Wistron will be a key concern in mass production, Wu said.
SHIPPING
Evergreen gets extension
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) has gained approval to extend its lease of the Colon Container Terminal (CCT) in Panama for another 20 years, the company said in a statement. The 20-year lease extension, approved by Panama’s Cabinet on Wednesday, comes days before the inauguration of the expanded Panama Canal on Sunday next week. The Colon facility can accommodate large vessels with a capacity of 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), Evergreen Marine said, adding that its total annual capacity at the Colon port will increase from 1.5 million to 2.4 million following the addition of several new wharfs.
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