PANEL MAKERS
Shipments expected to rise
Shipments of small and medium-sized LCD panels by Taiwanese companies are expected to rise in the third quarter of this year on the back of increasing demand for tablets and smartphones, according to a local research firm. Taiwanese manufacturers will ship 373 million LCD displays during the third quarter, up 3.2 percent from the previous quarter, Digitimes Research forecast in a recent note, but the quarterly growth rate of 3.2 percent is the lowest since 2005, which Digitimes analyst Jason Yang (楊仁杰) attributed to increased competition. Yang said shipments are expected to contract 1 percent in the third quarter compared with last year and shipments in the fourth quarter are likely to contract 6.5 percent from this quarter and 5.2 percent year-on-year.
TRADE
TAITRA looks to tap Brunei
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said yesterday it is to lead two trade delegations to Brunei and participate in an exhibition. In addition to the local market, Taiwan plans to tap Brunei as a gateway to increased trade with ASEAN nations and Muslim markets, the trade promotion body said in a statement. TAITRA plans to lead the two trade delegations to Brunei next month, including one exclusively for opportunities in the halal food sector. In October, the council plans to take representatives from Taiwanese firms to attend an exhibition.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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