Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), Apple Inc’s largest iPhone assembler, has mapped out a five-year plan to drive growth for the company, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told shareholders at an annual general meeting in New Taipei City yesterday.
Highlighting a three-step plan revolving around digital transformation, Liu said the company is focused on developing three core technologies: artificial intelligence, semiconductors and new-generation communication.
“To improve our profit margin, we have set our sights on three new industries: electric vehicles, digital healthcare and robotics,” Liu said.
Photo: Reuters / Ann Wang
Upon succeeding Hon Hai founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) as chairman last year, Liu has vowed to increase the company’s gross margin from about 6 percent to 10 percent within five years.
“With a compound annual growth rate of more than 20 percent ... output value from these industries are estimated to reach US$1.4 trillion by 2025,” Liu said, expressing the hope to claim up to 10 percent of market share.
Pointing to saturation in the information and communications technology industry, Liu said that the company would see little growth if it focuses only on its main assembling business.
Photo: Bloomberg / Ashley Pon
Heavily reliant on Apple’s orders of iPhones, which are mostly still assembled at its China plants, Hon Hai has witnessed an 89.49 percent drop in net profit for last quarter due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company has trimmed its outlook for this year following a dampened smartphone market.
Liu said Hon Hai is cutting down on management and operational costs to recover from losses.
Hon Hai’s shareholders approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4.2 per common share.
Liu said that the company would hold a technology forum in about October to showcase new developments by the company’s research institute, which comprises five centers specializing in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, next-generation communications, cybersecurity and quantum computing.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
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