Advantech Co (研華) chairman K.C. Liu (劉克振) yesterday said that a surge in the New Taiwan dollar would affect the embedded computer module and industrial motherboard maker’s revenue and earnings per share.
“The company’s revenue would see a bearable decrease, and as we would calculate it by the NT dollar, our earnings per share and share price might fall a bit as well, but we will earn that loss back from other sectors,” Liu said at a news conference in Taoyuan.
Advantech mainly conducts transactions with US dollars in overseas markets but uses the NT dollar as the reporting currency in its financial statements. Therefore, an appreciation of about 3 to 5 percent in the NT dollar would definitely result in foreign exchange losses and affect the company's profits, but the outcome is bearable, he said.
Photo: CNA
The NT dollar traded at NT$30.145 against the US dollar yesterday, gaining 2.96 percent. It has risen 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions.
Asked about the potential impact of US tariffs, he said the company would share the costs with clients and partly absorb them.
The US tariff rate for Taiwanese goods might not be as high as 32 percent, and it might be 15 to 20 percent instead, so it would not be a crisis for the company, he added.
Taiwan-made industrial computers are difficult to replace, and the tariff uncertainty would eventually pass, so the situation is not critical, Liu said.
However, to cope with the predictable revenue decline, Advantech would continue to work on the application of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and software systems to provide higher value for clients, he said.
Advantech is building new factories in southern California, where half the land has been reserved for future expansion, he said.
The company has set up plants in northern California for 20 years to assemble large system products, he added.
Some of the company’s board members have urged Advantech to set up surface mount technology (SMT) plants in the US to avoid high import levies, Liu said.
However, setting up SMT plants in the US would require taking labor, cost and flexibility into consideration, while the complex, low-volume and diverse nature of SMT production would also require sending experienced supervisors abroad, inevitably increasing expenses, he added.
Looking ahead, amid rising demand for edge AI computing and artificial intelligence of things, Advantech could expand its presence in the smart factories and energy as well as retail and hospitality sectors, he said.
The company is to showcase edge AI applications at the Computex Taipei trade show from May 20 to 23, including autonomous robots, robotic arms and service robots developed with partners, he added.
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco), the Saudi state-owned oil giant, yesterday posted first-quarter profits of US$26 billion, down 4.6 percent from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom’s multitrillion-dollar development plans. Aramco had revenues of US$108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw US$107.2 billion in revenues and profits of US$27.2 billion for the same period last year. Saudi Arabia has promised to invest US$600 billion in the US over the course of US President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump, who is set to touch
SKEPTICAL: An economist said it is possible US and Chinese officials would walk away from the meeting saying talks were productive, without reducing tariffs at all US President Donald Trump hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations, ahead of a second day of talks yesterday between top officials from Washington and Beijing aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by his aggressive tariff rollout. In a Truth Social post early yesterday, Trump praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.” The second day of closed-door meetings between US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) were due to restart yesterday morning, said a person familiar