MANUFACTURERS
Hiwin profit plunges 78%
Machinery maker Hiwin Technologies Co (上銀科技) yesterday reported that net profit plunged 77.67 percent annually to NT$389.03 million (US$12.79 million) in the third quarter, with earnings per share falling from NT$5.79 to NT$1.26 over the period. Last quarter’s net profit reached the lowest in 10 quarters during a sector downcycle. Third-quarter revenue fell to the lowest since the second quarter of 2017, at NT$5.06 billion, due to customers destocking inventories. Gross margin declined 7.1 percentage points to 33.64 percent, while operating margin decreased 13.07 percentage points to 12.63 percent, company data showed. In the first three quarters of this year, net profit totaled NT$1.83 billion, down 59.62 percent from a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$5.90.
ENERGY
SAS posts NT$1.61bn profit
Solar firm Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (SAS, 中美晶) yesterday reported a net profit of NT$1.61 billion for last quarter, from a net loss of NT$2.28 billion in the previous quarter, after the company resettled multi-year supply contracts and gained a contribution from its semiconductor subsidiary, GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓). That allowed SAS to report earnings per share of NT$2.76 last quarter, compared with net losses per share of NT$3.92 the prior quarter, the company said. In the first three quarters, the company reported that net profit reached NT$1.16 billion, down about 54 percent from a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$2.00.
RETAIL
FamilyMart profits rise 9%
Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), operator of the nation’s No. 2 convenience store chain, yesterday reported that net profit last quarter increased 8.71 percent annually to NT$588.55 million, thanks to rising store sales and customer traffic. Earnings per share rose to NT$2.64 from NT$2.43 a year earlier. Revenue for last quarter increased 7.56 percent to NT$20.24 billion, with gross margin of 36.74 percent. The company’s net profit in the first three quarters reached NT$1.35 billion from NT$1.26 billion a year earlier, with earnings per share of NT$6.04 from NT$5.64 a year earlier.
AUTOMAKERS
Sumitomo to buy RAC stake
RAC Electric Vehicles Inc (華德動能), which makes electric buses and trucks, yesterday reached an agreement with Sumitomo Corp to sell a 7 percent stake to the Japanese trading firm for ¥450 million (US$4.12 million) via a private placement. Through the partnership, the two companies plan to develop electric bus and smart city-related businesses. RAC is the only Taiwanese company that has obtained certification from the government for electric buses.
CHIPMAKERS
Miaoli approves plant EIA
Miaoli County authorities have approved the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for an IC packaging and testing plant planned by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). The Miaoli Environmental Protection Bureau on Monday said that it had in principle approved the EIA submitted by TSMC, which is planning to build the plant in a section of the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) in Jhunan Township (竹南), except for what it called “minor” issues related to water consumption, atmospheric pollutant emissions and transportation issues. The bureau is waiting for TSMC to reply to those issues.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the