LG Electronics Inc yesterday unveiled a new range of energy-saving home appliances, as the South Korean company aims to secure a double-digit market share in Taiwan next year.
“The ‘smart home appliance range’ will meet users’ expectations, with innovative technologies and energy-saving features that maximize convenience and create greater add-on value for users,” LG Electronics Taiwan president and chief executive Kim Byung-hyung said at the launch of the firm’s new refrigerators and washing machines.
Different from existing products on the market, LG’s new flagship 826-liter refrigerator, named the GR-D82B and priced at NT$99,000 (US$3,405.57), has a smart filtering system that can filtrate nearly 100 percent of harmful bacteria and eliminate odors through four filtration processes, the company said.
LG also launched three medium-sized models of refrigerators, priced between NT$33,490 and NT$35,490, hoping the new products will boost its refrigerator market share to 10 percent next year from this year’s 7 percent, the company said.
In addition, LG yesterday unveiled a new washing machine, which is designed to wash up to 17kg of clothes per cycle, and said it expected to see its washing machine market share increase to 25 percent next year from 20 percent this year.
Moon Kyung-jin, home appliance product marketing director at LG, said all the new products will hit the market by the end of the year, and that the company will be launching a 66-liter washing machine in May next year.
LG expects to see its overall sales in Taiwan grow by 20 percent next year, mainly driven by TVs and smartphones, Kim said.
Kim forecast that the home appliance market would remain flat next year, but that demand for 47-inch screen TVs would continue to grow.
Kim said LG will ship more than 1 million TVs next year to increase its global market share to 20 percent from this year’s 10 percent, as he expects the global penetration rate of larger TV’s will hit 50 percent next year.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
Protectionism: US trade chief Katherine Tai said the hikes would help to counter unfair trade practices from China, while boosting domestic clean energy investments US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) defended stiff tariff hikes against countries such as China, saying that paired with investment, they were a “legitimate and constructive” tool for reinvigorating domestic industries. Tai’s comments come a week after sharp tariff increases on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), EV batteries and solar cells took effect — with levies down the line on other products also recently finalized. The latest moves targeting US$18 billion in Chinese goods come weeks before next month’s US presidential election, with Democrats and Republicans pushing a hard line on China as competition between Washington and Beijing intensifies. In an interview on Thursday