COMPUTERS
Quanta profit rises 9 percent
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world’s second-largest contract laptop maker, yesterday posted a net profit of NT$4.51 billion (US$149.09 million) for the final quarter of last year, a 9 percent year-on-year increase despite foreign-exchange losses of up to NT$1.05 billion. That led to a full-year net profit of NT$15.94 billion, a 5.5 percent year-on-year increase which translated into earnings per share of NT$4.14. Quanta’s board of directors yesterday proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$3.7 per common share, representing a payout ratio of 89.37 percent. The proposal is subject to shareholders’ approval at the company’s annual general meeting scheduled for June 19 in Taoyuan.
CHIP DESIGNERS
Report hits MediaTek shares
Shares of MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday fell 1.03 percent to close at NT$336.5 in Taipei trading after the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported that the handset chip designer would suffer a 20 percent decline in 4G chip shipments. The report said that the declining shipments were due to MediaTek’s customers, such as Transsion Holdings Co (傳音控股), shutting down their factories in India amid a three-week lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MediaTek said the report was groundless and that it had retained its guidance for the first quarter.
CHIPMAKERS
TSMC shares fall 2.01%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday fell 2.01 percent in Taipei trading after the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported that trial production of the contract chipmaker’s advanced 3-nanometer process technology would be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. TSMC is planning to launch mass production of its 3-nanometer process in 2022, but the report said that the installation of equipment at a fab in Tainan would be delayed from June to October, which would then delay the chipmaker’s trial production set for next year. TSMC refused to comment on the report, saying that the company is focused on developing a 5-nanometer process that is scheduled to begin mass production in the first half of this year.
CHIP TESTERS
ASE proposes NT$2 dividend
The board of directors of ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投資控股) yesterday proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$2 per common share, down from NT$2.5 last year. That represented a payout ratio of 50.5 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$3.96. It implied a dividend yield of 6.69 percent, based on its closing price of NT$59.2 in Taipei trading yesterday. The proposal is subject to shareholders’ approval at the company’s annual general meeting scheduled for June 24.
POULTRY
Charoen income rises 54%
Poultry producer Charoen Pokphand Enterprise (Taiwan) Co Ltd (台灣卜蜂) yesterday posted net income of NT$1.46 billion for last year, a 54 percent increase year-on-year. It represented earnings per share of NT$5.45, the second-highest in the company’s history. Gross margin improved from 14.18 percent to 14.27 percent, while consolidated revenue increased 12 percent year-on-year to NT$21.17 billion, primarily due to a bigger contribution from its food processing business, the company said. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected sales at the hotel, bar and restaurant businesses this year, it said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day