AUTO PARTS
BizLink sales slump
Wire harness maker BizLink Holding Inc (貿聯) yesterday posted consolidated sales of US$54.95 million for last month, a 4.27 percent month-on-month and 10.72 percent year-on-year decrease. The company blamed the fall on the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused many nations to impose a variety of restrictions, negatively affecting global supply chains. BizLink, an exclusive harness supplier to US electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc, said cumulative sales in the first quarter were US$164.41 million, down 7.35 percent from the same period last year.
INTERNET
Vivotek sees weak demand
Internet security solutions provider Vivotek Inc (晶睿科技) yesterday posted revenue of NT$589 million (US$19.48 million) for last month, an 18.47 percent month-on-month increase, but down 6.7 percent from a year earlier. As the firm’s three major plants are in Taiwan and it has a sufficient supply of raw materials, the COVID-19 pandemic has not had a substantial impact on production, Vivotek said. However, the escalating outbreak, and lockdowns in the US and Europe, would likely lead to weakening demand, it said. Revenue in the first quarter was NT$1.58 billion, up 17.04 percent quarter-on-quarter, but down 7.76 percent year-on-year.
MEMORY CHIPS
Adata revenue soars
Adata Technology Co (威剛科技), the world’s second-largest memory module supplier, yesterday posted revenue of NT$2.86 billion for last month, up 16.82 percent from NT$2.45 billion in February, as it benefited from rising shipments in the DRAM and solid-state drive (SSD) segments. That was 25.96 percent higher than NT$2.27 billion the previous year and the highest in 20 months, company data showed. Adata revenue rose 12.13 percent year-on-year to NT$7.19 billion in the first quarter, with the DRAM segment contributing 45.5 percent of sales, SSD 31.2 percent and NAND flash memory 12.85 percent.
PERIPHERALS
Chicony bullish on Q2
Chicony Power Technology Co (群光電能), which makes computer peripherals, yesterday posted consolidated revenue of NT$2.76 billion for last month, an 82.2 percent month-on-month and 2.2 percent year-on-year increase, and the highest level for March in the company’s history. Consolidated revenue in the first quarter decreased 7.2 percent year-on-year to NT$6.71 billion, less than the company’s guidance of a fall of 8 to 10 percent. The company resumed full production in China at the end of last month, which would help boost shipments this quarter, Chicony Power president Peter Tseng (曾國華) said. The company could benefit from rush orders for power supplies used in commercial and education-based laptops as remote working and online teaching become more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic, analysts said.
ELECTRONICS
HTC sales inch higher
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday posted consolidated sales of NT$432.25 million for last month, a 3.13 percent increase from a month earlier and ending two consecutive months of decline. However, last month’s sales were 67.07 percent lower than the same period last year. HTC attributed the decline to lower shipments. Cumulative sales in the first quarter were NT$1.33 billion, down 54.83 percent year-on-year, the company said in a regulatory filing.
From India to China to the US, automakers cannot make vehicles — not that no one wants any, but because a more than US$450 billion industry for semiconductors got blindsided. How did both sides end up here? Over the past two weeks, automakers across the world have bemoaned the shortage of chips. Germany’s Audi, owned by Volkswagen AG, would delay making some of its high-end vehicles because of what chief executive officer Markus Duesmann called a “massive” shortfall in an interview with the Financial Times. The firm has furloughed more than 10,000 workers and reined in production. That is a further blow
MOBILE SMART: The Dimensity 1200 is 22 percent better in terms of performance than its predecessor, and 25 percent more power-efficient, the handset chip designer said MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday unveiled its premium 5G processors — the Dimensity 1200 and Dimensity 1100 — as it vies for a larger slice of the world’s rapidly growing 5G smartphone market. Manufactured using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) 6-nanometer process technology, the Dimensity 1200 processor performs 22 percent better than the previous generation Dimensity 1000+ processor, and is 25 percent more power-efficient, MediaTek said. Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Realme Mobile Telecommunications (Shenzhen) Co (銳爾覓移動通信) are to be the first adopters of the latest Dimensity chips, the companies said during a virtual media briefing. Xiaomi plans to equip its first
‘BROAD RANGE’: The US Department of Commerce intends to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei, an industry association said US President Donald Trump’s administration notified Huawei Technologies Co (華為) suppliers, including chipmaker Intel Corp, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told reporters. The action — likely the last against Huawei under Trump — is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, which Washington sees as a national security threat. The notices came amid a flurry of US efforts against China in the final days of Trump’s administration. US president-elect Joe
Answering to a reported request by Germany to help address a chip shortage in its auto industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said that it was in talks with domestic chip suppliers. Foreign media over the weekend reported that German Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier had sent a request to Taipei to ask Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to cooperate more closely with German automakers to provide microchips and sensors, to bridge a shortage that has emerged over the past few months. The MOEA said that it had not yet received the request and could therefore not elaborate
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