Holtek Semiconductor Inc (盛群半導體), the nation’s largest designer of microcontroller units for consumer electronics, yesterday said that second-quarter net profit dropped more than 18 percent annually as Chinese customers cut demand due to the US-China trade dispute.
Holtek said it holds a conservative outlook for the second half of this year, but expects a positive effect from transferred orders going forward.
Some Chinese companies approached Holtek to shift orders from their existing suppliers to reduce risks from the trade dispute, but it would take at least six months to start seeing contributions, the company said.
“We are still in the process of verifying our products for those new customers,” Holtek spokesman Armstrong Tsai (蔡榮宗) told an investors’ conference in Taipei. “Order visibility remains low for the second half.”
Revenue in the second half could be little changed compared with NT$2.24 billion (US$72 million) in the first half, Tsai said.
China contributed 76 percent to Holtek’s revenue in the first two quarters, a company financial statement showed.
“Chineses and Taiwanese customers are scaling back orders for graphics adapters [used in gaming computers], keyboards, fingerprint [chips] and motors,” Tsai said.
“Some of our Chinese customers have sent us messages that orders for [chips used in] wireless stereo earbuds will be fewer than expected due to the trade tensions,” he said.
Holtek counts Chinese smartphone makers Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Xiaomi Corp (小米) as its top two customers in microcontroller units for wireless earbuds.
It expects to add two new clients for its microcontroller units this year, Tsai said.
That would help boost shipments of microcontroller units for wireless earbuds to about 6 million this year, beating the company’s previous estimate of 5 million units, he said.
The company also expects an uptick in demand this quarter for microcontroller units used in biometric measurement devices, security applications, touch units and advanced 32-bite units.
In the April-to-June quarter, net profit slumped 18.42 percent to NT$254.87 million from NT$312.43 billion a year earlier, but increased 25.32 percent from NT$203.37 million in the first quarter.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$1.13, down from NT$1.38 a year earlier, but up from NT$0.9 in the prior quarter.
Holtek saw gross margin improve to 50.7 percent last quarter from 49.8 percent a year earlier, but down from 50.9 percent in the first quarter.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”