Sony Corp expects a tough year for its television-making unit this fiscal year because of a slowing economy, the head of the business said.
“Year-end demand isn’t looking good globally,” Masashi Imamura, a senior vice president in charge of home entertainment products, told reporters in Tokyo yesterday. Sales of larger models may help the TV-manufacturing industry, which “will probably struggle” to match last year’s sales, he said, while sticking to the company’s annual sales target.
Sony said last month its main TV operation may lose about ￥80 billion (US$1 billion) in the year ending March next year, a ninth straight year of losses from the business, adding to about ￥700 billion in losses since April 2004. Chief executive officer Kazuo Hirai is reducing the number of Bravia models as he aims to make the TV unit profitable in the year ending March 2014.
Photo: Bloomberg
The electronics maker, seeking to recover from four straight years of net losses, cut its annual TV sales target last month to 15.5 million units from 17.5 million units, citing a slowing global economy.
Toshiba Corp, the maker of Regza TVs, may miss its goal of selling 16 million TVs this fiscal year by as much as 20 percent, Masahiko Fukakushi, chief executive officer of the company’s digital products unit, told reporters separately yesterday in Tokyo.
Global TV shipments fell 8 percent to 51.6 million units in the quarter ended June 30 from a year earlier, a second consecutive quarterly decline, DisplaySearch said on Sept. 11, citing worsening economic conditions. Japan was the hardest hit, plunging 77 percent, while developed markets overall recorded a 23 percent decline, the researcher said.
Sony ranked third, trailing Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Inc, with an 8.3 percent market share in the quarter, compared with 9.4 percent in the preceding quarter.
Sony is carefully monitoring sales in China as some discount outlets have halted promotions of Japan-made goods, Imamura said. A dispute over islands in the East China Sea that are claimed by both countries has sparked protests in China, disrupting local output by Japanese companies and reducing demand for their products in the world’s second-largest economy.
Sony’s TV-unit reform plan “is progressing as planned,” Imamura said. There will probably be a significant improvement in the fiscal year starting April next year, he said.
In June, Sony agreed with Panasonic Corp to jointly develop TV sets that use organic light-emitting diode panels, or OLED screens. The partnership is the first between the main TV operations at the two companies. Samsung and LG have said they will introduce OLED models by Dec. 31.
The collaboration with Panasonic is running smoothly and the two company may offer OLED products after March 2014, Imamura said.
Sony will start offering 84-inch sets using so-called 4K technology for ￥1.68 million in Japan from Nov. 23. The company sees growing demand for larger sets in developed markets such as North America and Japan, Imamura said.
Toshiba is to display an 84-inch 4K-resolution set at the CEATEC electronics show near Tokyo next week. The 4K standard enables higher-resolution images than conventional models.
HSBC Holdings PLC is deepening its commitment to Taiwan as the economy emerges as one of the bank’s fastest-growing markets globally, driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, expanding cross-border trade, and rising wealth creation. “The advantage that Taiwan has is a growth story linked to the semiconductor and broader AI industries, strong underlying corporate performance, and wealth creation,” said Surendra Rosha, HSBC’s co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East, in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on June 2, during this year’s HSBC Taiwan Conference. That combination has helped HSBC cement its position as the most profitable international
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
The average pay to employees by ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) was the highest among the companies listed on the local main board last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) ranked seventh, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said on Monday. Data compiled by the exchange showed ASE Technology, the world’s largest chip packaging and testing services provider, paid its employees an average of NT$6.28 million (US$199,746) last year, up 40 percent from a year earlier. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and the most profitable company in Taiwan, paid its employees NT$4.09 million on average, up
‘INSANE YEAR’: C.C. Wei said he is confident that Taiwan’s AI supply chain would fend off foreign competition, dismissing concerns South Korea would take over Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said an explosive demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips has led to pervasive supply constraints and it is accelerating capacity expansions to avert bottlenecks. “We are trying not to become the bottleneck. Supply is a little bit tight as customer demand has outstripped what we can supply,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told a news conference after the company’s annual general meeting in Hsinchu City. “Customers have shown incredibly strong demand in recent years. The growth is insane this year, in particular,” Wei said. TSMC is also facing short supply of
RSS