SEMICONDUCTORS
Faraday results disappoint
Integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原科技) yesterday reported that fourth-quarter sales and earnings were below market expectations, reflecting the effects of clients’ inventory adjustments. Faraday’s fourth-quarter net income fell 66.4 percent from the previous quarter to NT$49 million (US$1.63 million), or earnings per share of NT$0.2, while sales fell by 11.9 percent to NT$1.4 billion, a company financial statement showed. Aided by higher revenue from its high-margin silicon intellectual property rights and non-recurring engineering segments, Faraday’s overall revenue for last year increased 8.2 percent annually to NT$5.31 billion, while net income rose 32.1 percent to NT$3.48 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.4, it said.
TECHNOLOGY
US firm eyes high Q1 sales
Applied Materials Inc on Wednesday released a bullish sales forecast for this quarter, suggesting that its customers are once again spending on their fabs. The company’s fiscal second-quarter sales would be US$4.34 billion, plus or minus US$200 million, and adjusted earnings would be between US$0.98 and US$1.10 a share for the period ending in April, the company said in a statement. The US company is the largest maker of machinery used by manufacturers of semiconductors, with Samsung Electronics Co, Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) among its customers.
TRANSPORTATION
GrabWheels takes EV partner
GrabWheels, the new mobility arm of ride-hailing firm Grab, yesterday said that it has secured US$30 million in fresh funding from Taiwanese venture capital fund KYMCO Capital (金庫資本), as part of a strategic partnership to invest in and develop two-wheeler electric-vehicle (EV) solutions to accelerate the adoption of EVs in Southeast Asia. The fund is under Taiwanese scooter maker Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業), which sells its scooters under the KYMCO brand. The partnership would enable the firms to jointly explore developing and deploying two-wheel EVs, specifically KYMCO’s Ionex electric bikes, as well as the Ionex EV charging platform in Southeast Asian cities, a press release said. The US$30 million capital injection is part of GrabWheels’ ongoing Series A round.
AIRLINES
CAL delays Cebu flights
China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) yesterday announced that it is postponing the launch of its Taoyuan-Cebu flights from March 29 to June 12 due to Manila’s announcement on Monday that it is temporarily banning Taiwanese visitors from the Philippines in a bid to contain COVID-19. CAL’s announcement came after Starlux Airlines Co’s (星宇航空) decision on Wednesday to delay the launch of its Taoyuan-Cebu route until July 1.
RETAIL
Breeze Group to cut jobs
Upscale mall operator Breeze Group (微風集團) on Wednesday confirmed that it plans to reduce its workforce, but declined to say whether media reports of a 30 percent cut are accurate. The planned reduction is a routine internal adjustment, Breeze said, adding that it would continue to hire professionals to help the firm expand. Breeze opened its 10th Taipei mall in January 2018 — the Breeze Nan Shan (微風南山) in the city’s Xinyi District (信義) — and plans to open another one in Nangang District (南港), it said. Taipei Department of Labor official Liu Chia-hung (劉家鴻) said his agency had not yet received a notice from Breeze about layoffs or any complaints from the group’s employees.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”