Epistar Corp (晶電), the nation’s top LED chipmaker, yesterday reported that its sales last month rose NT$1.97 billion (US$66.11 million), despite of weakening market demand for LED backlight displays.
Sales increased 2.87 percent from NT$1.91 billion in July and 0.39 percent from NT$1.96 billion during the same period of last year, with cumulative sales for the first eight months growing 4.41 percent to NT$14.28 billion from a year ago.
The results beat SinoPac Securities Co’s (永豐金證券) estimate, which forecast Epistar’s sales last month would decline month-on-month because market demand for LED backlight displays had been slowing. The brokerage also predicted Epistar’s third-quarter sales to decline 8 percent quarter-on-quarter.
However, given that Epistar has expanded its customer portfolio in China and that the US-based LED material and device manufacturer Cree Inc, also a client of Epistar, has launched new products, Epistar may see its shipments increase in the long term, SinoPac Securities said in a report.
Unlike Epistar, LED chipmaker Unity Opto Technology Co (東貝光電) reported its sales last month slid 9.98 percent month-on-month and decreased 33.91 percent year-on-year to NT$552.74 million.
Cumulative sales during the January-to-August period grew 9.19 percent to NT$4.89 billion from NT$4.47 billion during the same period last year, the company said on Thursday.
Unity Opto attributed the declines to inventory adjustments by its Chinese clients and also a larger-than-expected drop in LED backlight product shipments due to Chinese government’s termination of its subsidy program.
In view of year-end holiday demand, sales for next quarter are forecast to achieve sequential growth, driven by increasing shipment of LED lighting products used in touch-enabled notebook and tablet computers, the company added.
Meanwhile, Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達電子), the LED manufacturing arm of AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), said sales were NT$1.23 billion last month, down 6.3 percent month-on-month, but up 28.2 percent year-on-year.
Cumulative sales during the first eight months expanded 38.55 percent to NT$9.27 billion from NT$6.69 billion a year ago.
Lextar said in a filing on Thursday that robust replacement demand for tablets replacing laptops was one of the causes of its month-on-month sales decline.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
RSS