Amid a constant decline in voice traffic, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) reported a 9.06 percent annual decline in net profit for last quarter to NT$8.73 billion (US$299 million), lagging behind its profit target for the full year.
Monthly profit deteriorated to NT$2.69 billion last month, down 9.73 percent from February.
The nation’s biggest telecom has set a target of net profit growth of between 0.9 percent and 8.8 percent year-on-year to between NT$47.17 billion and NT$50.84 billion this year. That means the company would have to make at least NT$11.79 billion each quarter to meet its target.
Revenue and net profit “fell slightly short of the company’s forecasts,” Chunghwa Telecom said.
Revenue shrank 1.65 percent to NT$53.64 billion last quarter, compared with NT$54.54 billion during the same period last year. The company would have to make at least NT$57.87 billion in sales each quarter to meet its full-year target of between NT$231.47 billion and NT$232.97 billion.
As of the end of last month, Chunghwa Telecom had 8.48 million mobile users.
The company said that its Internet TV services, or multimedia-on-demand, subscriber numbers increased to 1.7 million households, on track to hit its target of 2 million users this year.
Rivals Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) also saw their earnings drop more than 12 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.
Taiwan Mobile posted a 12.1 percent fall in net profit to NT$3.48 billion from NT$3.96 billion a year ago.
Earnings per share slid to NT$1.28 from NT$1.46.
Despite the drop, quarterly earnings were still on track to meet its full-year target of NT$13.6 billion, or NT$3.4 billion per quarter.
Revenue last quarter rose 5 percent year-on-year to NT$30.31 billion last quarter, in line with the company’s full-year revenue target of NT$123.14 billion.
Far EasTone saw its net profit drop 13.73 percent year-on-year to NT$2.45 billion last quarter.
Earnings per share fell to NT$0.75 from NT$0.87.
Last quarter’s net profit was lagging behind the company’s full-year forecast of NT$10.42 billion, or NT$2.65 billion per quarter.
Revenue shrank 3.65 percent annually to NT$21.67 billion from NT$22.49 billion, lagging behind the company’s full-year forecast of NT$89.89 billion, or NT$22.47 billion each quarter.
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
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
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],”