Fire hits Eclat’s Vietnam factory
A fire broke out in textile maker Eclat Textile Co’s (儒鴻) fabric factory in Vietnam on Thursday, destroying part of its facilities with losses of around NT$2.5 million (US$82,000), the company said yesterday.
The company said production lines at the factory would be shut down for three days and return to normal within seven days. However, the fire is not expected to affect Eclat’s shipments because the company has enough inventory, the company said.
No injuries were reported in the fire, which was caused by an oil leak in a boiler, Eclat said.
Lotus decides against Alvogen
Generic drug developer Lotus Pharmaceutical Co (美時化學製藥) yesterday said it had decided not to acquire control of China-based Alvogen Asia because of the high costs of building retail routes in China.
“Establishing retail routes in China is currently not the top priority for Lotus,” the company said, adding that Lotus plans to focus more on increasing its portfolio and integrating its resources with US-based Alvogen Group Inc.
“However, we will never give up the fast-growing Chinese market,” Lotus vice president Hung Yao-le (洪堯樂) said by telephone.
Yageo sees profits jump
Yageo Corp (國巨), the nation’s largest passive components maker, yesterday posted a net profit of NT$1.18 billion for last quarter, a steep increase from the NT$460 million posted a year ago, aided by strong demand from the computer and electronics manufacturing sectors.
Compared with the second quarter’s NT$943 million, net profit increased by 25 percent.
Gross margin improved to 26.9 percent last quarter from the 26 percent recorded a year earlier, but declined from last quarter’s 27.4 percent.
For this quarter, Yageo said it would slow, but that the company plans to accelerate its expansion in the European and US markets in an effort to enhance its competitiveness and profitability.
WPG pedicts Q4 sales decline
Semiconductor component distributor WPG Holdings Co (大聯大投資控股) yesterday projected that sales for this quarter would decline by between 5.74 percent and 9.93 percent from that seen last quarter due to seasonal weakness in the supply chain and inventory adjustment in distribution channels.
Consolidated sales are forecast to be between NT$107.5 billion and NT$112.5 billion, a drop from the record NT$119.35 billion recorded last quarter, while gross margin is likely to fall to between 4.4 percent and 4.7 percent this quarter, compared with 4.45 percent last quarter, and operating margin could slide to between 1.5 percent and 1.7 percent from 1.76 percent over the same period.
During the July-to-September period, WPG reported a net profit of NT$1.56 billion, or NT$0.94 per share.
Hermes net profit edges down
Electron-beam wafer inspection equipment maker Hermes Microvision Inc (HMI, 漢微科) on Thursday posted NT$598 million in net profit for last quarter, down 0.71 percent from the second quarter.
From January through September, the company reported net profit of NT$1.79 billion, a rise of 8.6 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Earnings per share were NT$8.43 in the last quarter, with cumulative earnings per share totaling NT$25.13 in the first three quarters of the year, the company said.
Hermes Microvision reiterated that sales for this quarter would increase from last quarter due to new orders from clients, with sales for this year likely to rise by between 30 and 40 percent from that seen last year.
Meanwhile, the company’s board announced the promotion of chief operating officer Pan Chung-shih (潘中石) to president, replacing Jack Jau (招允佳).
Flexium forecasts drop in sales
Flexium Interconnect Inc (台郡), a Taiwanese producer of printed circuit boards, on Thursday said sales for this quarter would drop by between 10 and 20 percent from the same period a year earlier, which implies a quarterly increase in sales of between 30 percent and 45 percent from that posted last quarter.
The company said its initial yield rate for its key customer’s new smartphone models is satisfactory and expects its gross margin for this quarter to increase by between 2 percentage points and 3 percentage points from 22 percent last quarter.
Flexium also revised its full-year sales growth estimate down from flat growth to a year-on-year decline of 10 percent, as it decided to give up some low-end products and tried to increase its exposure to mid and high-end products.
In the past quarter, the company reported a weaker-than-expected net income of NT$360 million, down 36.1 percent year-on-year, because of lower sales, higher-than-expected operating costs and tax payments.
TPK reshuffling board: report
Touchpanel maker TPK Holdings Co (宸鴻) is reportedly to hold a board meeting on Tuesday to approve a change of management as the company is struggling with declining earnings, domestic media outlets reported yesterday.
The board is likely to appoint Michael Chung (鍾依華) as the company’s new president, replacing Tom Sun (孫大明), who would be promoted to vice chairman, the reports said.
Chung was Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) head of the iDPBG division, which makes iPhones and is Hon Hai’s most profitable business group, before he left the company last year for health reasons.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
FAULTs BELOW: Asia is particularly susceptible to anything unfortunate happening to the AI industry, with tech companies hugely responsible for its market strength The sudden slump in Asia’s technology shares last week has jolted investors, serving as a stark reminder that the world-beating rally in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor stocks might be nearing a short-term crest. The region’s sharpest decline since April — triggered by a tech-led sell-off on Wall Street — has refocused attention on cracks beneath the surface: the rally’s narrow breadth, heavy reliance on retail traders, and growing uncertainty around the timing of US Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts. Last week’s “sell-off is a reminder that Asia’s market structure is just more vulnerable,” Saxo Markets chief investment strategist Charu Chanana said in
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