Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s second-largest notebook computer maker on contract basis, plans to build a new plant in Brazil in the fourth quarter to cater to customers’ needs and to further reduce operational risks by diversifying manufacturing sites.
That will be a second step taken by the notebook manufacturer in diversifying its production lines to a more cost-effective location, from its major manufacturing base in China, on rising labor costs and labor contract laws.
VIETNAM
Compal is building a new plant in Vietnam and plans to produce as many as 300,000 notebooks a month starting in the second quarter of next year. Monthly production could expand to one million units in the future, the company’s chairman said.
“We want to help our customers enhance their competitiveness by building plants around the globe,” Compal chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄) told reporters.
Compal makes notebooks for the world’s largest PC vendors including Hewlett-Packarad Co, Dell Inc and Acer Inc (宏碁).
The company has rented an empty plant in Brazil and planned to build another in the fourth quarter, Hsu said. He did not reveal details about the new production expansion.
PAYROLL
In May, Compal told investors that labor payroll could increase by 20 percent after the new labor rule takes effect this year. Compal operates three plants in China.
“Compal’s move comes to match recent consumer growth in emerging markets in South America,” said Sean Hsiao (蕭文良), who tracks NB industry for Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧).
Compal’s strategy may also include fending off growing competition from electronics manufacturing service providers (EMS) such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which have an intensive manufacturing network around the globe that includes Brazil, Hsiao said.
OPTIMISM
Compal’s production expansion is built on the company’s optimism that the laptop market will continue to grow as desktops are replaced and demand in emerging markets continues to grow, Hsu said.
Compal said it may ship 32 million laptops this year, up nearly 40 percent from 23 million units last year.
But Hsu said revenues growth for the Kinpo Group (金仁寶集團), which owns Compal, may slow as the US subprime crisis and weakening economic growth in Europe and China have caused consumers to tighten their spending.
“Like its Taiwanese peers, the group’s revenues will grow about 20 percent in the second half, compared to the first half, rather than 50 percent over the past years,” Hsu said.
Hsu also doubles as Kinpo Group chairman.
Compal shares fell 2.77 percent to NT$28.05 yesterday.
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
Two scoops of pistachio, one of corruption. For years holidaymakers have guzzled Sicilian gelato at famous parlors in Palermo, unaware that the booming businesses were controlled by organized crime. The fraud was a textbook case for detectives trained to sniff out dirty money, but even with three mobster classics — a suspicious bankruptcy, a front man and a scheming “Godfather” — it took years for investigators to shut the operation down. The Brioscia brand, made up of two ice cream parlors, was thriving at the end of the 2010s, attracting locals and foreign visitors alike with its glittering gold stars on travel
RSS