Huga Optotech Inc (廣稼), a leading manufacturer of light-emitting diodes (LED), yesterday denied local media reports that it was sending workers on unpaid leave, saying it has encouraged employees to take annual leave and strengthened their training programs.
The clarification came after several local Chinese-language newspapers said the Greater Taichung-based company became Taiwan’s first technology firm to furlough workers to help cope with falling business.
“The reports of [our using] unpaid leave are inaccurate,” Huga said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
There are about 1,300 people on the LED maker’s payroll.
The company said it had struck an agreement with employees before asking them to take annual leave and increasing training hours.
Huga is yet another technology firm that has encouraged employees to schedule annual leave or enroll in training programs amid declining orders after the nation’s two top flat-panel makers, Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), made similar moves earlier this week.
Founded in 1998, Huga rolled out its first LED chip in 2000 just as the global LED industry was taking off. The company saw tenfold growth between 2005 and 2007.
The company reported NT$104.06 million (US$3.43 million) in net losses during the first half of this year, reversing a net profit of NT$268.9 million a year earlier and translating into a net loss of NT$0.21 per share, company statistics showed.
Huga’s shares stayed flat at NT$14.8 yesterday, weaker than the TAIEX’s 0.14 percent gain, stock exchange data showed.
Meanwhile, MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s largest handset chip designer, is bucking the negative sentiment within the high-tech sector, as the company plans to recruit 300 software engineers in both Taiwan and China to meet product demand in the smartphone market, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
The newspaper, citing unnamed company officials, said MediaTek is targeting engineers in such fields as Android operating system, long term evolution (LTE) high-speed network, radio-frequency system, digital TV platform and 3D application programs.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
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