TECHNOLOGY
GlobalWafers’ profit plunges
GlobalWafers Co Ltd (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 6 wafer supplier, yesterday said net profit plunged 37.8 percent to NT$287 million (US$89.1 million) in the first quarter, compared with NT$464 million in the previous quarter, due to lower average selling prices and higher costs. Gross margin stood at 23 percent last quarter, the company said. GlobalWafters said demand for small and medium-sized wafers would stablize this quarter, helping keep its production utilization rate at full capacity.
SOLAR
Gintech reverses losses
Solar cell maker Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶) yesterday said net profit surged 33.85 percent to NT$522 million last quarter from the previous quarter, compared with losses of NT$296 million a year earlier. The company said its gross margin improved to 13.6 percent last quarter — compared with 11.6 percent a quarter earlier and minus-2.2 percent a year earlier — due to higher average selling prices. Gintech’s board approved plans to issue new shares to safeguard long-term strategic partnerships and improve its working capital.
ELECTRONICS
E-Lead income drops 93%
E-Lead Electronic Co (怡利電子), an auto electronics manufacturer focusing on infotainment head units, reported yesterday that net income dropped 93.29 percent annually to NT$6.4 million in the first quarter, with earnings per share falling from NT$0.8 to NT$0.05 over the same period. Revenue decreased 26.02 percent annually to NT$641.49 million in the first quarter, the company said. E-Lead said the weak performance in the first quarter was due to fewer orders from the Middle East and a high comparison base the previous year.
CHIPMAKERS
Adata income quadruples
DRAM module maker Adata Technology Co (威剛) yesterday said net income grew more than fourfold to NT$111.92 million for the first quarter from a year earlier, with earnings per share of NT$0.56. The company’s revenue for the first quarter posted an annual decline of 10.54 percent to NT$4.88 billion, but its gross margin increased by 2.58 percentage points to 7.15 percent over the same period, according to a company financial statement. The company said it is positive over its shipments in the second half of the year.
TECHNOLOGY
GeoVision’s earnings shrink
Digital surveillance equipment supplier GeoVision Inc (奇偶) saw its earnings shrink by 40 percent annually in the first quarter due to higher global competition and delayed product launches. The company also reported foreign-exchange losses of NT$21 million in the first quarter. Net income reached NT$47 million in the January-to-March quarter, with earnings per share of NT$0.61, the lowest quarterly figure in the company’s history, company data showed. Revenue in the first quarter dropped 7 percent year-on-year to NT$495 million, while gross margin fell to 48 percent from 54 percent, the company said.
PANEL MAKERS
AUO plans training center
LCD panel maker AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) yesterday said it plans to transform a 3.5G facility into a training center in collaboration with National Taipei University of Technology. The Hsinchu-based 3.5G facility-turned training center is to be the nation’s first LCD training center. In the collaboration, AUO also plans internship opportunities for the university’s students.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its
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