Pegatron Corp (和碩), one of Apple Inc’s iPhone assemblers, yesterday said it is planning to expand manufacturing sites in Vietnam, India and North America to meet customer demand for production diversification, amid supply chain chaos attributable to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The unpredictable effects of COVID-19 and unstable supply chains have increased uncertainty worldwide regarding consumer demand and the shipping of products, Pegatron said in its annual report.
“Pegatron will continue monitoring the supply of key components and working closely with its suppliers to optimize capacity allocations,” the company said.
Photo: Huang Hao-chen, Taipei Times
The remarks came as the firm held its annual general meeting in Taipei, where shareholders approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$5 per share.
That represented a payout ratio of 64.85 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$7.71 last year.
Pegatron’s board of directors last month approved a plan to invest an additional US$50.61 million to expand its manufacturing hub in North America, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Pegatron said it had already planned to invest US$164 million on production lines in North America so that it could accommodate an increase in orders in the region.
The company has factories in Taoyuan, as well as operations in Mexico, Indonesia and the Czech Republic, while China is still its most important manufacturing hub, with factories in Kunshan, Suzhou, Shanghai and Chongqing.
Pegatron expects an increase in demand for information technology products, especially commercial PCs, as people gradually return to the office, the annual report said, adding that the launch of Microsoft Corp’s Windows 11 operating system would stimulate PC replacement demand.
As communications products, such as smartphones, are affected by seasonal cycles, Pegatron said it plans to boost production efficiency and improve management to navigate the industry’s ups and downs.
Last quarter, communication products were the biggest revenue contributor, accounting for 60 percent of total revenue, the company said.
This year, Pegatron expects its automotive electronics business to contribute more revenue, thanks to an increase in orders.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$10.26 billion to finance the construction of its second fab in Kumamoto, Japan, and a second fab in Arizona, using advanced process technologies. The Department of Investment Review approved TSMC’s investment applications on the basis that Taiwan remains a major technology and manufacturing hub for the chipmaker, which makes its most advanced chips at home, the company operates its research-and-development center here and the majority of its capacity remains in Taiwan. The latest capital injections — US$5.26 billion for its Japanese venture Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing
DIVERSIFYING: Following customers’ demand to improve supply chain resilience, ASE is looking for sites in the US, Japan and Mexico, a company executive said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it plans to launch a new high-end chip testing fab in the US next month to better serve its key customers based in North America, particularly California-based artificial intelligence (AI) customers. The new US testing facility would be operated by the firm’s subsidiary ISE Labs Inc, it said. ASE’s major customers, and high-ranking US officials and representatives from American Institute in Taiwan are to attend the fab’s opening ceremony on July 12, it said. ISE Labs last year acquired a 5,942m2 facility in San
Local companies believe that nearly a third of all job opportunities will vanish in 10 years due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), according to a survey released by online job bank yes123 on Tuesday. In the survey of 1,016 companies on the labor market’s third quarter outlook, the job bank focused in part on AI’s impact on workers and asked companies what percentage of jobs they felt would be lost to AI’s round-the-clock productivity and high-speed computing prowess. Respondents felt on average that 29.2 percent of job opportunities would be lost to AI over the next 10 years, but there
Taiwanese workers earned an average of NT$47,000 per month this year, but 40 percent are struggling financially and 18 percent plan to switch jobs within 12 months, two separate surveys showed yesterday. The amount equals a 5.4 percent increase from a year earlier to a decade high, 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said. The government is due to review the nation’s minimum wages. Employees at computer and consumer electronics manufacturers reported the highest average monthly wage of NT$60,000 a month, followed by semiconductor firms at NT$59,000, and vendors of shoe and textile products, along with software and Internet businesses at NT$55,000, 104 Job