MANUFACTURING
Sentiment improving
The business sentiment of Taiwan’s manufacturing sector showed signs of improvement in July, as optimism toward a peak season for the global high-tech industry outranked concern over the US-China trade war, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) said on Tuesday. Citing its latest survey, the institute said the nation’s economy is recovering at a stable pace, with many manufacturers more upbeat about their operations and the overall business climate.
OFFICE EQUIPMENT
Aurora markets 3D printers
Office equipment sales agent Aurora Group (震旦行) on Tuesday announced that it has acquired distribution rights for two international 3D printing vendors: Israel-based Nano Dimension Ltd and Mcor Technologies Ltd of Ireland. It said it has also launched its “Aurora 3D Multi Color” in Taiwan and China to more aggressively pursue the cross-strait 3D printing market. Aurora shares rose 17.58 percent last week in Taipei trading, closing at a record-high NT$109 on Friday.
LAND DEVELOPMENT
CHT reactivating assets
Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信) is reportedly reactivating its land asset development, with total investment of between NT$7 billion and NT$8 billion (US$227.78 million to US$260.30 million). The Chinese-language Commercial Times last week reported that the telecom has selected sites to develop three smart office buildings, and construction would be carried out by its subsidiary Light Era Development Co (光世代建設). It has also selected three more sites to develop into social housing projects, the paper said. The company would neither confirm nor deny the report.
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