E-PAPER
E Ink revenue rises
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s largest supplier of e-paper displays for e-readers and luggage tags, yesterday posted NT$1.76 billion (US$57.48 million) in revenue for last month, up 98 percent from NT$889 million in August and an annual increase of 35.38 percent from NT$1.3 billion, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. In the first nine months of this year, E Ink reported that aggregated revenue declined 2.93 percent annually to NT$10.17 billion from NT$10.48 billion in the same period last year. That bodes well for the firm to lift its full-year revenue forecast for this year from an earlier estimate of a 10 percent yearly reduction, analysts said.
CASINGS
Catcher reports profit fall
Catcher Technology Co (可成), a supplier of metal casings to Apple Inc, yesterday said that pretax profit dropped 3.12 percent quarterly to NT$5.9 billion last quarter, compared with pretax profit of NT$6.09 billion. Revenue surged 73 percent to NT$27.83 billion, compared with NT$16.08 billion in the second quarter, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2017. The company said gross margin last quarter was the weakest in six years at 23.1 percent, little changed from the previous quarter. In the first nine months, pretax profit sank 51.6 percent to NT$15.12 billion from NT$31.24 billion a year earlier, while revenue dropped 9.9 percent to NT$59.7 billion from NT$66.25 billion.
TECHNOLOGY
Advantech opens center
Advantech Co Ltd (研華) yesterday launched a new service center in Fukuoka, Japan, following its acquisition in February of Omron Nohgata, a subsidiary of Omron Corp. In addition, a new configure-to-order-services plant would enable the company to offer custom assembly of equipment ranging from industrial-grade small-edge, desktop, panel and rack-mounted PCs to servers, Advantech Technologies Japan president Mike Koike said in a statement. The plant would also provide custom assembly of graphics processing unit cards, factory automation cards and industrial applications, as well as other input/output cards related to artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technologies, Advantech Technologies Japan said.
STEELMAKERS
CSC revenue drops
China Steel Co (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s sole steel mill, yesterday said that revenue last month totaled NT$28.93 billion, its lowest monthly revenue in eight months amid sliding steel prices worldwide and falling demand. The Kaohsiung-based company said it did not see any signs of a rebound this quarter. On an annual basis, revenue fell 14.75 percent from NT$33.94 billion, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. In the first nine months of the year, China Steel’s cumulative revenue dropped 4.94 percent to NT$281.81 billion from NT$296.44 percent in the same period last year.
ENERGY
Wind project work advances
Assembly of the first underwater pin piles for offshore wind turbines at the Port of Taipei in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里) was completed on Saturday. Lai Wen-hsiang (賴文祥), chairman of Century Iron & Steel Industrial Co (世紀鋼構), which is contracted to do the work, said the work has become a huge business internationally in the past few years. Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany are manufacturing the products amid growing demand, Lai said. Against that backdrop, Century Iron has invested NT$6 billion in an assembly plant at the port, he said.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
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