CHIPMAKERS
TSMC revenue rises 14%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday reported that revenue increased 14 percent last month to NT$84.76 billion (US$2.7 billion) from a year earlier. The figure dropped 1.3 percent from June, TSMC said in a statement. For the first seven months of the year, cumulative sales totaled NT$544.46 billion, down 2 percent from the same period last year, it said. Meanwhile, handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) reported consolidated sales of NT$20.69 billion for last month, up 1.29 percent year-on-year, but down 0.98 percent month-on-month. Total sales in the first seven months were up 3.38 percent to NT$134.98 billion, it said.
IT
Acer revenue falls
PC brand Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday announced its consolidated revenue for last month was NT$18.32 billion, down 8.7 percent year-on-year and 25.2 percent month-on-month. The effects of the US-China trade dispute were reflected in last month’s revenue performance, Acer said. However, its transformation, which includes Acer Cyber Security Inc (安碁資訊), Weblink International Inc (展碁國際), Altos Computing Inc (安圖斯科技) and Acer e-Enabling Service Business Inc (宏碁資服), continued to gain momentum, it said. In the first seven months, cumulative revenue was down 3.9 percent to NT$128.15 billion from a year earlier.
IT
HTC reports net loss
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday reported a net loss of NT$2.23 billion last quarter, or losses per share of NT$2.71, its fifth consecutive quarter in the red. The company’s operating losses were NT$2.49 billion, with an operating margin of minus-88.5 percent, HTC said in a statement. However, gross margin rose 5.6 percentage points from the previous quarter to 20.3 percent and marked the sixth consecutive quarterly increase since the fourth quarter of 2017, it said. Overall, HTC reported losses per share of NT$5.69 in the first half. The company did not elaborate on its financial results, saying only that it remained committed to providing premium virtual reality (VR) hardware, VR software and services, and its first 5G-centric product, the 5G Hub.
RETAIL
Momo expects sales boost
Momo.com Inc (富邦媒), an online, TV and catalog shopping subsidiary of Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), expects sales promotions for the Ghost Festival to help boost its revenue this month after reporting record revenue last month. Consolidated revenue rose 26.4 percent annually to NT$4.06 billion last month, lifting revenue for the first seven months by 19.92 percent to NT$27.61 billion, the company said yesterday. The Ghost Festival falls on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which is Thursday.
BEVERAGES
La Kaffa income surges
La Kaffa International Co (六角國際), which owns bubble tea brand Chatime (日出茶太), last week reported net income in the first half of the year skyrocketed more than 200 percent year-on-year to a record NT$173 million, or earnings per share of NT$4.53. Cumulative revenue in the first seven months grew 33.87 percent annually to NT$2.799 billion, also a record for the same period. The company attributed the growth to continued store expansion, rising per-store sales, growing sales of raw materials and the shutdown of less profitable outlets.
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],”