Automotive lighting module maker Laster Tech Co Ltd’s (麗清科技) new plant in Taoyuan’s Guanyin Industrial Park (桃園觀音工業區) is expected to begin trial production in the second quarter at the earliest, it said on Friday, adding that it has secured orders of components for smart automotive lighting.
Earlier this month, the company won approval from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to invest NT$800 million (US$26.65 million) in the new plant.
The largest LED automotive lighting components supplier in China said it plans to set up a smart production facility to meet demand from customers seeking to avoid US tariffs on China-made products.
Laster is conservative about its business outlook for this quarter, the company said in a statement, citing work disruption from the Lunar New Year holiday and a sluggish Chinese auto market due to trade tensions with the US.
However, the company expects strong order pull-in by major clients later this year to enhance factory utilization and stabilize production yield for new products, which would have a positive effect on its business this year, the statement said.
Laster reported revenue last year fell 6.38 percent year-on-year to NT$4.12 billion, compared with NT$4.4 billion in 2018, due to weak stocking by customers amid a slump in auto sales in China.
Passenger car sales in China fell for a second consecutive year last year, down 7.4 percent to 20.7 million units, following the 5.8 percent drop in 2018, data released on Thursday by the China Passenger Car Association showed.
Separately, automotive interior parts supplier Hiroca Holdings Ltd (廣華控股) reported that revenue fell 7.75 percent to NT$7.44 billion last year, from NT$8.06 billion the previous year.
The company expects steady orders this quarter from Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co to help offset the impact of fewer working days during the Lunar New Year holiday, it said in a statement.
The three Japanese brands account for more than 70 percent of the company’s revenue, it said.
Hiroca has also expanded to serve clients in eastern China and has taken part in SAIC Motor Corp’s (上汽集團) supply chain, which would inject new growth momentum this year, it said.
The company offers injection molding, spray painting and water transfer printing services for automotive interior parts, such as center armrest, dashboard, door and seat.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day