SEMICONDUCTORS
ASE plans new plant
Chip packager and tester Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) yesterday said it plans to build a new factory in Kaohsiung’s Nantze Export Processing Zone (楠梓加工出口區) as demand for chips for the Internet of Things, wearable devices and “smart” cars increases. The NT$14 billion (US$446 million) investment will create 1,800 new jobs, ASE said. The plant is expected to start operations in 2018, with an annual production value of NT$11.5 billion, the company said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Win sales meet expectations
Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋半導體) yesterday reported sales for last quarter, which were in line with the company’s guidance and met the market’s expectations. Consolidated sales of NT$3.548 billion in the third quarter were up 21.83 percent year-on-year, but down 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter, the foundry services provider for gallium arsenide components used in handsets said in a statement. For this quarter, the company said it does not see any restocking demand from major clients based on current order visibility and therefore expects to see seasonal weakness. Accumulated sales in the first nine months of this year totaled NT$10.395 billion, up 17.88 percent from the same period last year, Win said.
SMARTPHONES
HTC sales improve
Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said sales for last month grew annually and monthly on the back of new phone launches and contributions from its VR headset, the HTC Vive. Consolidated sales reached NT$9.33 billion last month, up 31.35 percent year-on-year and 41.8 percent month-on-month, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. While last month’s figure was the highest in nearly 15 months, the company’s combined sales in the first nine months of this year still fell 41.72 percent to NT$55.91 billion from a year earlier, the filing said.
PANELMAKERS
GIS reports revenue rise
General Interface Solution Holding Ltd (GIS, 業成), which supplies touchpanels for Apple Inc’s iPhones and iPads, yesterday posted stronger-than-expected revenue of NT$19.86 billion for last quarter. Revenue grew 93.15 percent during the quarter ended on Friday last week from the previous quarter, but declined 26.53 percent from the same period last year, GIS said. Total revenue in the first nine months dropped 11.45 percent annually to NT$49.74 billion. With Apple likely to introduce a new low-cost iPad in the coming weeks, GIS’ sales momentum is expected to continue into this quarter, analysts said.
MANUFACTURING
Lite-On revenue increases
Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday reported an 8 percent annual expansion and 6 percent monthly growth in revenue to NT$22.26 billion last month, the highest monthly figure in the contract electronics component maker’s history. Lite-On said in a statement that sales at its optoelectronics business, which contributed 23 percent of its total revenue last month, saw growth of 5 percent from a year earlier. The information technology business segment accounted for 51 percent of sales, with revenue growth of 4 percent annually, while the storage applications segment made up of 19 percent of sales, with revenue growth of more than 20 percent, Lite-On said. Consolidated revenue totaled NT$166.27 billion in the first nine months of this year, increasing 4 percent from a year earlier, it said.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day