ELECTRONICS
Largan sales up 4 percent
Smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday reported that unaudited sales last month rose 4 percent monthly and 17 percent annually to NT$4.51 billion (US$147.68 million). Sales in the first half of the year came to NT$21.17 billion, 4.28 percent lower than a year earlier, the company said. Largan is scheduled to hold its quarterly earnings conference on Thursday next week and investors are likely to focus on the company’s production yield rate and margin expansion as its top line grows.
CASINGS
Catcher upbeat on demand
Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), a metal casing supplier for Apple Inc, yesterday reported revenue of NT$7.2 billion for last month, up 3.6 percent month-on-month, but down 1.2 percent year-on-year. In the first six months, cumulative revenue totaled NT$41.16 billion, up 24.4 percent from a year earlier, the company said. Favorable industry trends of rising metal casing adoption and design complexity are expected to benefit Catcher due to its leading industry position, analysts said.
ELECTRONICS
Acquisition boosts Chilisin
Chilisin Electronics Corp (奇力新), the nation’s largest power inductor manufacturer, yesterday reported record sales of NT$1.71 billion for last month, up 71.65 percent year-on-year, which the company attributed to contribution from its newly acquired subsidiary Layers Scientific-Technics Co Ltd (美磊). In the first six months, cumulative sales totaled NT$7.38 billion, an annual increase of 26.53 percent, Chilisin said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
ELECTRONICS
Getac posts record revenue
Rugged PC vendor Getac Technology Corp (神基) yesterday posted record-high consolidated revenue of NT$2.07 billion for last month, up 14.21 percent year-on-year. In the first half of the year, revenue totaled NT$11.395 billion, up 11.44 percent from a year earlier. Sales in the second half are likely to maintain sequential growth driven by seasonal factors, analysts said.
HOSPITALITY
Humble House in shake-up
My Humble House Hospitality Management Consulting Co (寒舍餐旅) yesterday called a special board meeting and approved the appointment of managing director Wilhelm Tsai (蔡伯翰) as its chairman. Tsai served as acting chairman after Ellie Lai (賴英里) resigned on June 27 for personal reasons. Tsai, who joined the group in 2003, is to double as managing director, while Lai is to remain a board director, the company said.
FOREX
Reserves down US$153m
Foreign-exchange reserves amounted to US$457.12 billion as of the end of last month, a decline of US$153 million from the level in May, the central bank said yesterday. The depreciation of the euro and other currencies against the US dollar more than eroded asset management gains, the bank said.
BANKING
First Bank eyes Jakarta
First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) has obtained approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission to establish a representative office in Jakarta. The bank on Wednesday said it is awaiting approval from Indonesian authorities to set up its 17th office in Southeast Asia. The lender had a representative office in Jakarta before 2000, when it shuttered the office in light of the Asian financial crisis that began in 1997.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its