CAMERA LENSES
Genius revenue soars
Genius Electronic Optical Co (玉晶光), which supplies camera lenses for Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday reported stronger-than-expected revenue for last month. Consolidated revenue rose 4.96 percent month-on-month and 145 percent year-on-year to NT$1.93 billion (US$62.58 million), Genius said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Last month’s figure was the highest monthly revenue in the company’s history and pushed its overall revenue for the first nine months up 42.69 percent year-on-year to NT$8.26 billion, company data showed. With sales of new iPhone models exceeding market expectations, Genius might benefit from a potential boom for Apple suppliers this quarter, analysts said.
CHIPMAKERS
TSMC starts 7nm production
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun mass production of chips made with its advanced 7-nanometer-plus technology. The trial production of chips made on the more advanced 6-nanometer process is scheduled for the first quarter of next year, TSMC said in a statement on Monday. In the wake of the news, TSMC shares yesterday gained 3.06 percent to close at the day’s high of NT$286.5 in Taipei trading, pushing up the firm’s market capitalization to a new high of NT$7.43 trillion. TSMC shares served as a driver to boost the broader market as the TAIEX closed up 0.75 percent at 11,017.31 points.
ELECTRONICS
Aten back on track
Aten International Co Ltd (宏正自動科技) yesterday posted revenue of NT$424.02 million for last month, a 7.83 percent increase year-on-year. Cumulative revenue from January to last month declined by 1.55 percent year-on-year to NT$3.69 billion after the company faced headwinds earlier this year due to the US-China trade dispute. Aten said sales in its IT infrastructure solutions segment increased by 12 percent year-on-year last month and sales in its audio-visual business increased by 10 percent, while those of USBs and related products declined by 1 percent.
AUTO PARTS
Tong Yang sales decline
Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業), which manufactures bumpers and automotive sheet metal products, yesterday posted sales of NT$1.67 billion for last month, a 10.1 percent decrease year-on-year. Cumulative sales in the first nine months fell 9.61 percent year-on-year to NT$15.77 billion, as sales generated by the aftermarket business grew 5 percent, but sales at the original equipment manufacturing (OEM) business fell by 35.16 percent, Tong Yang said in a statement. Sales at the OEM business would continue to decline this quarter, but the pace has slowed, a company official said by telephone.
FITNESS EQUIPMENT
Johnson Health bullish
Fitness equipment maker Johnson Health Technology Co Ltd (喬山健康科技) yesterday posted revenue of NT$2.13 billion for last month, a 7.65 percent increase year-on-year, lifting cumulative revenue in the first nine months by 18.62 percent year-on-year to NT$17.09 billion, a record high. The company said it expects revenue to reach its peak this quarter thanks to seasonal demand. To cope with rising demand, the company is expanding its operations in Taiwan and Vietnam. A new Vietnamese plant is expected to start mass production at the end of this year, while construction of a smart warehouse in Taiwan is to be completed in the second quarter of next year, the company said.
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
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
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
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
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