TELECOMS
CHT figures beat estimates
Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信) yesterday said continued efforts to streamline its operations and expense controls have enabled it to beat its earlier estimates for second-quarter operating income, net income and earnings per share. The nation’s largest telecommunications carrier said its net income in the April-to-June quarter was NT$11.06 billion (US$346.11 million), down 0.7 percent year-on-year, with earnings per share of NT$1.43. Operating income fell 2.4 percent to NT$12.88 billion and revenue fell 1.3 percent to NT$56.2 billion over the same period. Chairman Rick Tsai (蔡力行) said the company’s mobile Internet revenue rose by 6.6 percent annually in the second quarter and its 4G subscriber base expanded to 5.7 million as of the end of last month.
CHIPMAKERS
Macronix reduces losses
Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), which supplies memory chips for Japanese video game console maker Nintendo Co, yesterday posted a net loss of NT$691 million in the second quarter, compared with losses of NT$891 million in the previous quarter. The company’s gross margin fell from 15 percent to 14 percent, while revenue rose 2 percent to NT$5.18 billion over the same period. In the April-to-June quarter, NAND flash memory contributed 10 percent to Macronix’s overall revenue, NOR flash memory accounted for 66 percent of its revenue, while ROM products comprised 11 percent and its foundry business provided 13 percent.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Lotus gains US approval
Lotus Pharmaceutical Co (美時化學製藥), which makes and distributes oral and injection medicine, on Tuesday announced that its abbreviated new drug application for a generic version of calcium acetate capsules in 667mg doses has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The drug is used to reduce blood phosphate levels in people on dialysis with end-stage kidney disease. The company did not elaborate. Lotus Pharma’s aggregate sales in the first half rose 15.3 percent annually to NT$3.03 billion.
LIGHTING
Coretronic income falls
Coretronic Corp (中強光電), a manufacturer of LCD backlight modules, on Wednesday reported earnings per share of NT$0.54 for the second quarter, as net income decreased 8 percent annually to NT$233 million. Last quarter’s profit was lower than first quarter’s net income of NT$322 million. Coretronic, which also produces visual-solution products and projectors, said revenue in the second quarter declined 20 percent year-on-year and 2 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$13.572 billion, affected by seasonally low demand. In the first half of this year, the company reported earnings per share of NT$1.13, up slightly from a year earlier.
SOFTWARE
Microsoft appoint official
Microsoft Corp yesterday appointed Naoyuki Isogai, former chief of staff of corporate strategy at Microsoft Japan, to serve as marketing and operations general manager of Microsoft Taiwan. Naoyuki told a media gathering in Taipei that he worked at Microsoft Japan for more than 18 years and it is his first time to run a business outside Japan. Naoyuki is to be responsible for devising business strategies, investment planning and driving marketing plans to achieve high growth in Taiwan’s market, the US company said in a statement.
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