Amid fears of a trade war between the US and China, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) yesterday said that the company is able to flexibly adapt to market changes and might even consider shifting production to the US.
“Now that volatilities and challenges in the world market arising from changes in economic strategies adopted by the US and China are unavoidable, Asus, which has its own brand and is highly flexible, will face reality and follow government policy before choosing an optimal solution,” Shih said after attending the 2018 Smart City Summit and Expo in Taipei.
“Asus is strong in different fields and will branch out into markets where it can expand based on the belief that we should turn crisis into opportunity,” he said.
For instance, the company has begun production in Indonesia in cooperation with excellent local partners, he said.
“We do not have to be influenced solely by China when devising our global investment strategy,” Shih said.
“As we are a consumer-centric enterprise, when Asus rolls out products, our supply chain, from design to manufacturing needs to be swift and flexible in meeting the demand of different markets,” he said. “This trend is inevitable.”
Asked whether Asustek would consider manufacturing products in the US, a key market for the company, Shih said “that could be possible” and “of course Asus will consider teaming up with US partners” if the need arises.
Asustek shares yesterday closed unchanged at NT$274.5 in Taipei trading.
They have fallen 1.79 percent since the beginning of the year.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
RSS