GAMING
Cayenne to list in Taipei
Mobile game distributor Cayenne Ark Mobile Co Ltd (辣椒方舟), an affiliate of Cayenne Entertainment Technology Co (紅心辣椒), is to list today on the Taipei Exchange’s Emerging Stock Board at NT$20 per share. Cayenne Ark chairman Joe Deng (鄧潤澤) yesterday told a news conference that the company has a challenging year ahead due to intensified market competition and the hit mobile game Pokemon Go. The company reported net losses of NT$15.05 million (US$476,900) in the first half of this year, compared with a net income of NT$16.03 million during the same period last year. Deng said the company plans to introduce a new mobile game in Taiwan at the end of this year and four more games next year, making them Cayenne Ark’s main growth drivers next year. Deng declined to offer a revenue forecast for next year.
COSMETICS
Namchow inks skincare MOU
Cooking oil manufacturer Namchow Chemical Industrial Co (南僑化學工業) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Metal Industries Research and Development Center (金屬工業研究發展中心), marking a further step into the natural skincare market. Under its self-owned brand, the company hopes to distribute high-priced cosmetic products with natural ingredients from Taiwan to global customers, Namchow chairman Alfred Chen (陳飛龍) said at a signing ceremony in Taipei, without giving a schedule.
STEELMAKERS
CSC appoints chairman
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s largest steel mill, said in a press release yesterday that the company’s board approved the appointment of Wong Chao-tung (翁朝棟) as chairman. The board also named vice president Liu Jih-gang (劉季剛) to take over Wong’s position as president. In a separate release, the company reported pretax profit for the first nine months of this year of NT$16.67 billion, soaring 40 percent from the same period last year, after pretax profit of NT$8.83 billion last quarter, its highest quarterly level this year.
SOCIETY
Kaoshiung to host expo
The Maker Wisdom Expo, an event that allows artists and organizations to showcase their work and interact with others, is to take place at the Chung Cheng Martial Arts Stadium in Kaohsiung on Nov. 19 and Nov. 20, organizers said yesterday. Now in its second year, the expo is to have 125 booths set up by 65 schools and businesses for exhibitions, presentations and demonstrations, the Kaohsiung City Government said.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Line reports Q3 profit
Line Corp reported third-quarter profit and revenue that missed analysts’ estimates as the company pushes into advertising to offset slowing growth in its user base. Operating profit was ￥4.9 billion (US$47 million) in the period ended Sept. 30, according to calculations based on nine-month numbers released by Line yesterday, while sales reached ￥35.9 billion in the period. Line said its monthly active users totaled 220 million as of last month, a 3.5 percent increase from a year earlier. That was slightly lower than the previous quarter, when subscribers increased 4.1 percent, and the slowest growth in at least two years. Line expects annual sales to increase in the period ending Dec. 31, helped by advertising revenue. The company did not give a full-year earnings forecast.
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
EXPORT GROWTH: The AI boom has shortened chip cycles to just one year, putting pressure on chipmakers to accelerate development and expand packaging capacity Developing a localized supply chain for advanced packaging equipment is critical for keeping pace with customers’ increasingly shrinking time-to-market cycles for new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday. Spurred on by the AI revolution, customers are accelerating product upgrades to nearly every year, compared with the two to three-year development cadence in the past, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC Global Summit organized by SEMI in Taipei. These shortened cycles put heavy pressure on chipmakers, as the entire process — from chip design to mass
Germany is to establish its first-ever national pavilion at Semicon Taiwan, which starts tomorrow in Taipei, as the country looks to raise its profile and deepen semiconductor ties with Taiwan as global chip demand accelerates. Martin Mayer, a semiconductor investment expert at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s international economic promotion agency, said before leaving for Taiwan that the nation is a crucial partner in developing Germany’s semiconductor ecosystem. Germany’s debut at the international semiconductor exhibition in Taipei aims to “show presence” and signal its commitment to semiconductors, while building trust with Taiwanese companies, government and industry associations, he said. “The best outcome
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