PASSIVE COMPONENTS
Yageo lower, despite profit
Passive component supplier Yageo Corp (國巨) yesterday saw its shares dip 1.23 percent to close at NT$320, even though the company posted net profit of NT$4.52 billion (US$145.8 million) for last month. The figure surpassed the company’s share capital of NT$4.24 billion and translated into earnings per share of NT$10.81. Last month’s net profit nearly quadrupled from a year earlier, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Friday last week. In a separate statement, Yageo subsidiary Chilisin Electronics Corp (奇力新) said that the warehouses of its Chinese subsidiaries were damaged in a fire on Sunday. Buildings and manufacturing equipment were also damaged, it said, but the incident would not affect its manufacturing capacity. The affected facilities and equipment are covered by issurance, it said.
LIGHTING
Coretronic profit up 61%
Coretronic Corp (中光電), a manufacturer of LCD backlight modules, yesterday said net profit last quarter soared 61 percent to NT$674 million, compared with NT$418 million a year earlier. That translated into earnings per share of NT$1.55, up from NT$0.96 a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit jumped 48 percent from NT$455 million in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 20 percent from 16.5 percent a year earlier and 18.2 percent a quarter earlier. Coretronic said it expects shipments of LCD back-light modules, which constituted 65.5 percent of last quarter’s revenue, to drop by a single-digit percentage this quarter from last quarter due to a seasonal weakness. The company expects shipments of TVs and notebook computers this quarter to decline 10 percent from last quarter. The electronic assembly segment contributed 27.5 percent to revenue, it said.
AIRLINES
AirAsia to fly to Osaka
Budget airline AirAsia Inc yesterday announced that it is to begin services between Taoyuan and Osaka on Jan. 30, its first route connecting Taiwan and a Northeast Asian nation. The service would operate as an extension of its Taoyuan-Kuala Lumpur service, and would fly every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday through March 30, the airline said. Thanks to the fifth freedom right, which is being applied to the new service, AirAsia would be able to tap into new markets in Northeast Asia while increasing traffic in its main hub of Kuala Lumpur, the low-cost carrier said. The fifth freedom grants airlines the right to transport passengers from their own country to a second country, and from that country to a third country. The carrier said it hopes Taiwan can become one of its important transit hubs to Northeast Asia, especially as the number of outbound tourists from Taiwan to Japan has grown by about 7 percent a year over the past few years.
CHINA
Vehicle tax cut mulled
The country is considering a tax cut to revive its flagging automotive market, according to people familiar with the matter, lending support to a key industry that has been damaged by an ongoing trade spat with the US. An incentive would help shore up the world’s largest automotive market, which is facing its first decline in more than two decades as the trade spat dents spending power. To counteract the slowdown, the top economic planning body is proposing to halve the tax on car purchases to 5 percent. The measure would apply to cars with engines no bigger than 1.6 liters, said the people, declining to be named because the information is not public.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
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