United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s second-largest contract chipmaker, yesterday reported record-high sales last year on the back of strong global demand for consumer electronics.
Riding on the wave of the global foundry industry’s recovery, UMC saw sales of NT$120.43 billion (US$4.1 billion), up 35.9 percent from a year ago, the firm said.
However, sales in the fourth quarter fell 4.08 percent from the previous quarter to NT$31.32 billion as a rising NT dollar affected its competitiveness.
Last month, UMC recorded NT$10.18 billion in revenue, down 2.5 percent from November, the lowest level since the NT$10.09 billion posted in May 2009, the company said.
In the last three months of last year, the NT dollar rose by 5.4 percent against the US dollar.
The local currency has continued to climb despite intervention by the central bank to slow its appreciation.
Horizon Securities (宏遠證券) analyst Benson Huang said the impact of the rising NT dollar was widely expected.
However, foundry giants like UMC and its bigger rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), need to renegotiate with their clients on pricing for new supply contracts because of the impact of the currency appreciation, he said.
“I am not particularly worried about UMC’s sales, because the foundry business is expected to benefit from growing demand for new tech gadgets, in particular tablet computers,” Huang said.
Packed into a small room, a drone, bipedal robot, supermarket checkout and other devices showcase a vision of China’s software future — one where an operating system developed by national champion Huawei (華為) has replaced Windows and Android. The collection is at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Center in the southern city of Shenzhen, a local government-owned entity that encourages authorities, companies and hardware makers to develop software using OpenHarmony (鴻蒙), an open-source version of the operating system Huawei launched five years ago after US sanctions cut off support for Google’s Android. While Huawei’s recent strong-selling smartphone launches have been closely watched for
The waves of the Aegean Sea lap gently at the tables and chairs of two beach restaurants on Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula. It is an idyllic scene, but one that is totally illegal. Like many others in Greece, the two establishments on Pefkochori Beach do not have a license to set up shop so close to the water. After a wave of protests last summer by locals about bars and restaurants illegally covering beaches with sunbeds and tables, the Greek state is taking action. It is cracking down on rogue tourist practices with surveillance drones, satellite imagery and a special app
South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc, the world’s No. 2 memorychip maker, is to invest 103 trillion won (US$74.6 billion) through 2028 to strengthen its chips business, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), its parent SK Group said yesterday. SK Group also said it plans to secure 80 trillion won by 2026 to invest in AI and semiconductors as well as fund shareholder returns, while streamlining its more than 175 subsidiaries. The sprawling conglomerate outlined the plans following a two-day strategy meeting, aiming to revive the group after SK Hynix, its main money maker, and the group’s electric vehicle battery arm suffered heavy losses. SK
Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), a subsidiary of Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), yesterday said it is again offering a NT$100,000 discount for its entry-level n7 electric vehicle models. The n7’s price has gone down from NT$1.099 million to NT$999,000, Luxgen said, adding that there are 25,000 preorders for the model. MG Motor’s electric hatchback, the MG4, entered the market in the middle of last month, with a starting price of NT$990,000. China Motor Corp (中華汽車), which distributes MG vehicles in Taiwan, said it aims to sell 1,600 MG4s this year. MG, originally a British brand, was acquired by China’s SAIC Motor