Largan posts 74% growth
Largan Precision Co (大立光), which supplies smartphone camera lenses to Apple Inc, yesterday posted 74 percent annual growth for last month’s revenue to NT$4.62 billion (US$151.8 million) and the company said it expects the growth momentum to carry into this month.
Largan said customer demand was rising after their new products hit the stores.
Last quarter, Largan’s revenue expanded 69 percent to NT$12.09 billion, compared with NT$7.16 billion in the same period last year.
On a quarterly basis, revenue rose 2.11 percentage points from NT$9.98 billion in the second quarter.
Fubon founder dies at 86
Fubon Group (富邦集團) founder Tsai Wan-tsai (蔡萬才) yesterday died at the age of 86, the financial conglomerate said in a brief statement.
Fubon Financial did not elaborate on the cause of death, except to say that Tsai died in a peaceful manner.
Tsai is the father of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金) chairman Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) chairman Richard Tsai (蔡明興).
The family was ranked the richest in the nation in Forbes magazine’s list of the 40 richest Taiwanese in 2012.
Tsai Wan-tsai, born in Miaoli County in 1929, was the younger brother of Cathay Group patriarchs Tsai Wan-lin (蔡萬霖) and Tsai Wan-tsun (蔡萬春).
Tsai Wan-tsai served as a lawmaker and advisor to the Cabinet and the Presidential Office, among many other positions, before founding Fubon Group.
Hon Hai to offer jobs
Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) said on Saturday that it is planning to create 10,000 new engineer positions over the next five years, as it is expanding its plant in New Taipei City.
Over the next two years, the company is to recruit 5,000 engineers from around the world, Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) said.
In the next five years, the number of new positions for engineers at Hon Hai is expected to reach 10,000, he added.
The job openings are part of Hon Hai’s plans to expand its research and development center in Tucheng District’s (土城) Dingpu High-tech Industrial Park (頂埔高科技園區), Gou said, adding that he hopes to see more convenient transportation and the continued development of industry and technology in the district.
Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn in China, is the world’s largest computer components manufacturer and assembles products for Apple — including the iPhone — as well as Sony and Nokia.
It has 1.4 million employees in 14 countries.
In China alone, it employs about 1 million workers, roughly half of them based at its main facility in the southern city of Shenzhen.
Event to promote investment
The Ministry of Economic Affairs expressed optimism on Saturday that the nation would be able to attract more investment from overseas this year than last through an upcoming annual investment promotion event.
The ministry has held the annual Taiwan Business Alliance Conference since 2003.
The next event is scheduled for Wednesday at the Taipei International Convention Center.
Last year, the conference drew investments worth a record NT$138.8 billion.
According to ministry officials, at least five companies are planning to invest more than NT$5 billion in the nation this year, while a Western company intends to invest NT$10 billion in a travel and recreation project.
New plane for China Airlines
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) on Friday took delivery of a Boeing 777-300ER as part of its efforts to upgrade its fleet and expand its transportation capacity.
It is the first of 10 Boeing 777-300ERs the airline ordered in 2012 and CAL is to take delivery of the second and the third planes later this month and next month, with the remainder of the new purchases to arrive by the end of 2016, the company said.
CAL said each environmentally friendly Boeing 777-300 ER is expected to help the carrier save about NT$300 million in costs per year.
The first Boeing 777-300ER is scheduled to begin flights in December, flying passengers from Taipei to Los Angeles, the carrier said.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
It is challenging to build infrastructure in much of Europe. Constrained budgets and polarized politics tend to undermine long-term projects, forcing officials to react to emergencies rather than plan for the future. Not in Austria. Today, the country is to officially open its Koralmbahn tunnel, the 5.9 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) centerpiece of a groundbreaking new railway that will eventually run from Poland’s Baltic coast to the Adriatic Sea, transforming travel within Austria and positioning the Alpine nation at the forefront of logistics in Europe. “It is Austria’s biggest socio-economic experiment in over a century,” said Eric Kirschner, an economist at Graz-based Joanneum
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS