MediaTek Inc (聯發科), which supplies mobile phone chips to Chinese brands, yesterday posted 35.8 percent annual growth in net profit for the third quarter, after gross margin rebounded to a three-year high amid robust customer demand.
Net profit jumped to NT$6.87 billion (US$221.84 million) during the quarter compared with NT$5.06 billion during the same period last year. On a quarterly basis, net profit shrank 8.3 percent from NT$7.5 billion.
Gross margin improved to 38.5 percent, from 38.2 percent in the second quarter and 36.4 percent in the third quarter of last year.
MediaTek said it expects gross margin to remain stable at a range of between 36.7 percent and 39.7 percent this quarter, underpinned by new smartphone chip launches.
The chipmaker plans to launch a mid to high-end smartphone chip, dubbed the P70, this quarter, with an embedded artificial intelligence engine, before numerous new smartphone chips hit the market in the first half of next year, it said.
New mobile phone chips also help offset weakness in other areas, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, TV chips and power management chips, MediaTek said.
As a result, revenue this quarter is expected to fall by 4 to 12 percent quarter-on-quarter to between NT$59 billion and NT$64.3 billion, company chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told an investors’ conference.
“Smartphone [products] are to perform above seasonal patterns, thanks to new product launches,” Tsai said.
MediaTek said it expects shipments of its mobile phone and tablet chips to be between 100 million and 110 million, little changed from last quarter.
The forecast is lower than the company’s previous growth estimate for this quarter.
“The Chinese market is showing some weakness this year. China and emerging markets are facing headwinds because of weakening local currencies,” Tsai said. “Our [smartphone chip] shipment guidance is already quite good.”
Chips used in smartphones and tablets contributed 30 percent to 35 percent to the company’s total revenue last quarter, making such chips one of the three main pillars of MediaTek’s revenue.
Chinese smartphone vendors Xiaomi Corp (小米), Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動) and Vivo Electronics Corp (維沃移動通信) adopted MediaTek’s P22, A22 and P60 chips for their new phones last quarter.
MediaTek said it plans to unveil the company’s first 5G modem, the M70, in the first half of next year and launch its first 5G single chip by the end of next year, matching the pace of its rivals, Tsai said.
MediaTek is targeting the below-6 gigahertz band in China’s 5G market, he said.
MediaTek is also to ship its first application-specific IC for cryptocurrency mining machines in the first quarter next year at the earliest for its Chinese clients, Tsai said, adding that the chips would be produced using advanced 7-nanometer technology.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last