TECHNOLOGY
Advantech opens in Vietnam
Advantech Co (研華), the nation’s biggest industrial computer maker, yesterday said it has opened a new subsidiary in Vietnam in the latest move to expand its footprint to Southeast Asia. Advantech’s move came as a number of its clients from Japan and South Korea are relocating their manufacturing sites to Vietnam in a bid to take advantage of lower labor costs in the country, the company said in a statement. Vietnam is to replace China as the world’s new workshop, Advantech said. Vietnam has registered high foreign direct investment of US$15 billion a year over the past few years, the company added.
HOSPITALITY
Kanpai to issue 1m shares
Restaurant operator Kanpai Co Ltd (乾杯) yesterday said it plans to raise NT$10 million (US$342,454) in capital through the issuance of 1 million new common shares on the Emerging Stock Market, in a bid to boost its working capital. The company would reserve 10 percent of the new shares’ subscription rights for employees, with the remainder being made available to existing shareholders, it said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Kanpai has set the price at NT$163 per share, the filing said. The company, which operates six cuisine brands including Kanpai Classic (老乾杯), said it would open 15 new outlets this year to stimulate sales.
TECHNOLOGY
Computex to broaden focus
This year’s Computex Taipei is to focus on more areas, including innovations, start-ups and blockchain technology, as well as gaming and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, 5G telecommunications and the Internet of Things, organizers said yesterday. The trade show, set to take place between June 6 and June 8, is to see the number of exhibitors grow 10 percent from last year to 5,015 booths, including 300 start-ups from 19 countries, organizers said. Taiwan External Trade Development Council executive president Walter Yeh (葉明水) said that the annual event is aiming to transform from a procurement platform into a global event on building technology ecosystems.
HOSPITALITY
Hotel Royal Group to expand
Hospitality provider Hotel Royal Group (老爺酒店集團) is to open a new property in Taichung, raising its total number of outlets to 10 in Taiwan under three brands, the company said on Tuesday. The Place Taichung (台中大毅老爺行旅), a joint venture with Da Yi Construction and Development Co (大毅建設), which aims to woo young independent and business travelers, is to launch in July, the hotel group said. People can buy discount accommodation vouchers for NT$2,900 per room at forthcoming travel fairs in Kaohsiung and Taichung, it said.
HOSPITALITY
Resort to offer discounts
The Promised Land Resort & Lagoon (花蓮理想大地渡假飯店) is seeking to boost sales by taking part in major travel fairs in Taichung and Kaohsiung where it is to offer packages at discounted prices. The five-star resort is urging domestic tourists to take advantage of the NT$500 per person government subsidy and visit Hualien County. The facility emerged unscathed from a major earthquake on Feb. 6. The resort is modeled on the Italian city of Venice and offers 260 Spanish-style guestrooms, all with views of a 2.2km canal, waterfalls, bridges and Greek sculptures. People can purchase room vouchers at the trade shows for NT$3,970 per room, lower than its average daily room rate of NT$4,500.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by