PASSIVE COMPONENTS
Yageo posts record revenue
Yageo Corp (國巨), the nation’s biggest passive component supplier, yesterday said its revenue almost doubled to NT$4.84 billion (US$162.6 million) last month, compared with NT$2.43 billion the previous year, as it benefited from increasing demand across the board. Last month’s revenue marked a new record high for the company as an unresolved supply crunch continued to drive prices higher. Orders from Chinese smartphone makers are also strengthening, a company statement said. On a monthly basis, Yageo’s revenue rose 13.35 percent from NT$4.27 billion. In the first four months, revenue expanded 71.5 percent year-on-year to NT$15.86 billion.
COMPUTERS
Advantech sees growth
Advantech Co (研華), the world’s largest industrial computer supplier, yesterday said its revenue rose 12.35 percent to NT$3.78 billion last month, compared with NT$3.37 billion the previous year, with the strongest growth coming from the Chinese market. By business unit, its Intelligent Systems Group and Service-IoT (Internet of Things) Group were the best performers, Advantech said in a statement. The company expects industrial IoT devices to be one of the strongest growth drivers this year as manufacturers in Europe, the US and China are stepping up their automation efforts.
NOTEBOOKS
Shipments to fall: Digitimes
Global notebook computer shipments this quarter are forecast to decrease by 5.3 percent year-on-year due to high inventories and shrinking Chromebook sales in the education sector, Digitimes Research forecast on Friday last week. The projected shipments of 36.098 million units for this quarter would still be 5.5 percent higher than the previous quarter’s 34.222 million units, thanks to the launch of some new products and back-to-school demand, Digitimes said. Digitimes researcher Jim Hsiao (蕭聖倫) said No. 1 vendor HP Inc is expected to see a slight growth in shipments this quarter and to continue its deployments in more niche markets, such as low-end gaming notebooks and workstations. Due to the trade spat between China and the US, the second-largest vendor, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), might lose the opportunity to bid for US government procurement projects, Hsiao said. Dell Inc is expected to retain third place as the company continues to enjoy stable shipments in the commercial notebook market, with Chromebooks and high-end slim notebook models the growth drivers, he said. Acer Inc (宏碁) is likely to overtake Apple Inc as the No. 4 vendor in the second quarter, given demand for its gaming notebooks in the US market, he added.
STOCK MARKET
TAIEX closes 0.72% higher
The TAIEX yesterday closed up 75.54 points, or 0.72 percent, at 10,604.91 as buyers focused on Apple Inc’s major suppliers, led by smartphone camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光), dealers said. However, turnover remained moderate at NT$125.01 billion as many investors stayed on the sidelines, watching how foreign institutional investors would react after a sell-off, they said. “It was good that the local equity market staged a rebound and cleared the barriers ahead of 10,600 points today as major Apple suppliers attracted buying, but I prefer to say the gains were technical in nature as investors remained cautious about what foreign institutional investors would do after the massive net sell,” Ta Ching Securities (大慶證券) analyst Andy Hsu said.
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