RETAIL
Breeze eyes profitable year
Breeze Development Co Ltd (微風廣場實業), one of the nation’s biggest department store and shopping complex operators, yesterday said annual sales at its newly-renovated branch on Nanjing E Road could reach NT$2 billion (US$59.65 million) this year. Chief executive officer Henry Liao (廖鎮漢) said that the company is aiming to generate total sales of NT$23 billion this year, citing contributions from new branches. The company reported revenue of NT$13 billion in 2014 and forecast NT$16 billion revenue for last year.
SMARTPHONES
HTC sales plunge
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday reported its lowest monthly sales of NT$6.52 billion for last month since October last year, which represented an annual plunge of 57.08 percent and a monthly decline of 36.57 percent due to falling smartphone shipments. In a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the company said revenue last quarter totaled NT$25.74 billion, down 46.21 percent from the previous year, but up 20.28 percent from a quarter earlier. Overall, HTC reported NT$121.68 billion in revenue for the whole of last year.
MANUFACTURING
Sercomm sales up 50%
Sercomm Corp (中磊), the nation’s biggest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, yesterday said its sales for last quarter grew more than 50 percent from a year earlier, sending sales for last year to an all-time high. Supported by rising demand for fiber optical products, cable equipment and Internet of Things devices, Sercomm’s sales for last quarter were NT$9.68 billion, with total sales for last year hitting NT$35 billion.
FOOD AND Drink
Tai Tong sees sales growth
The Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團), which operates four oriental cuisine chain restaurant brands, yesterday reported that its sales for last month grew 20.62 percent annually to NT$293.41 million, pushing its sales in the fourth quarter of last year to grow more than 20 percent to NT$840.84 million, TTFB said. For the whole of last year, sales totaled NT$3.45 billion, up 18.72 percent from 2014, marking the highest level in the company’s history, according to the company’s Taiwan Stock Exchange filing.
COMPONENTS
Sinopower shares debut
Sinopower Semiconductor Inc (大中積體電路), an IC design house which specializes in power discrete devices and high voltage power IC design, yesterday saw its shares rise 14.58 percent on its debut on the Taipei Exchange. The shares at one point climbed to NT$34 — an 18.06 percent rise from their listing price of NT$28.8 — before retreating to close at NT$33. Sinopower reported sales of NT$140 million last month, up 81.09 percent from a year earlier. Total sales for last year edged up 0.58 percent annually to NT$1.28 billion, company data showed.
MACROECONOMICS
China proposal falls short
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said China’s proposal of tariff reductions for Taiwan’s agricultural and industrial products during a half-day informal meeting on Wednesday in Beijing had not met Taiwan’s expectation. In an attempt to complete the negotiation of the agreement in the next round of formal talks, a few more rounds of informal negotiations with Beijing might be needed, the ministry said.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
CHIP HANG-UP: Surging memorychip prices would deal a blow to smartphone sales this year, potentially hindering one of MediaTek’s biggest sources of revenue MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip designer, yesterday said its new artificial intelligence (AI) chips used in data centers are to account for 20 percent of its total revenue next year, as cloud service providers race to deploy AI infrastructure to meet voracious demand. MediaTek is believed to be developing tensor processing units for Google, which are used in AI applications. While it did not confirm such reports, MediaTek said its new application-specific IC (ASIC) business would be a new growth engine for the company. It again hiked its forecast for the addressable ASIC market to US$70 billion by 2028, compared
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
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