TECHNOLOGY
Apple suppliers’ sales slow
Qualcomm Inc and Broadcom Ltd, key suppliers to Apple Inc, have implied that orders related to the iPhone tailed off more than normal at this time of year. The San Diego-based Qualcomm on Wednesday said that orders from a large “thin modem” customer tailed off at worse-than-typical levels in the quarter. It was widely interpreted that the customer is Apple. Earlier on Wednesday, Broadcom said it expected a “greater-than-seasonal decline in wireless” components, indicating fewer-than-anticipated sales of its chips for its fiscal second quarter. Broadcom provides wireless network and Bluetooth components for the iPhone.
ELECTRONICS
Nintendo raises forecasts
Nintendo Co yesterday raised its outlook for profit and Switch sales for a second straight quarter following robust shipments during the holidays, the strongest sign yet that the console would be a long-term success. The Kyoto-based company raised its operating profit outlook to ¥160 billion (US$1.5 billion) from ¥120 billion for the current fiscal year ending next month. The company lifted its Switch hardware sales forecast for the period to 15 million, up from 14 million it set in October last year. Revenue was ¥483 billion in the quarter, compared with its forecast of ¥452 billion. Full-year sales are now forecast at ¥1.02 trillion, up from ¥960 billion.
AVIATION
Boeing Q4 profit up 92%
Boeing Co on Wednesday said that fourth-quarter earnings jumped, thanks to higher commercial plane deliveries and a boost from US tax reform, and expects more strong results this year. The US aerospace giant reported that fourth-quarter net profit reached US$3.1 billion, up a stunning 92 percent year-on-year. Revenue came in at US$25.4 billion, up 9 percent from the equivalent stretch in 2016, bolstered by higher commercial plane deliveries and increased defense revenues from deliveries of weapons systems. Boeing projected commercial plane deliveries of 810 to 815 this year, which would exceed the record 763 last year.
ENERGY
Shell leads in Mexico bid
Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Wednesday won nine of the 29 deepwater oil exploration blocks Mexico put up for bid in the Gulf of Mexico. The Anglo-Dutch oil giant won four of those bids in alliance with other companies. Shell was the biggest winner in the bidding round, in which 10 blocks drew no bids. Malaysia’s PC Carigali won seven blocks alone or in alliances, and Mexico’s state-owned Pemex won four blocks, two of them as part of an alliance. Mexico said the bidding ensured that nearly two dozen deepwater exploration wells would be drilled as part of billions of US dollars in investment.
GAMING
Macau revenue surge 36%
Macau’s casino revenue growth surged the most in four years as high rollers and leisure gamblers headed to the world’s biggest gambling hub before the Lunar New Year rush. The weeklong holiday begins on Feb. 16. Gross gaming receipts increased 36 percent last month to 26.3 billion patacas (US$3.3 billion), Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau said yesterday. That was better than the median estimate for a 27 percent increase in a Bloomberg survey of seven analysts and the highest jump since February 2014.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the