Industrial PC maker Advantech Co (研華) yesterday said it has launched its ASEAN Shared Service Center (ASSC) in Penang, Malaysia, as the company steps up efforts to target the Asia-Pacific region in shift from China.
“The establishment of ASSC in Penang signifies the company’s initial phase in implementing the ‘China Plus One’ strategy,” Advantech managing director for Asia and intercontinental region Vincent Chang (張敏忠) said in a statement.
The company’s goal is to support industrial users in project implementation and in-depth development, while also reinforcing regional core competencies and localized services, Chang said.
Photo courtesy of Advantech Co
“Penang, dubbed as the ‘Silicon Valley of the East’ and rich in multicultural talent, was selected for this purpose,” he said.
Along with the establishment of ASSC, the company signed a letter of intent with Piacom JSC, a system integrator affiliated with Vietnamese petroleum group Petrolimex, to offer complete solutions — covering both software and hardware — for the gas station industry in the region, Chang said.
In addition to delivering repair and maintenance services to regional customers, project integration and technical consultation, ASSC operates two production lines for product assembly, Advantech said.
The company said the center mainly caters to customers in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The center would also assist customers in other Asia-Pacific markets, supporting them with digital transformation and artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) technology in Pakistan and the Philippines, it added.
Advantech yesterday also launched a “University Co-Creation Worldwide Expansion Plan” (UCC) as it aims to forge industry-academia collaboration, promote localized services and create a complete talent development ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific region.
The UCC plans to launch 12 AIoT laboratories in the next two years in cooperation with colleges and universities worldwide, the company said.
Advantech, the first regional industrial PC vendor dedicated to smart cities and the Internet of Things, saw consolidated revenue last year drop 6.08 percent year-on-year to NT$64.57 billion (US$2.06 billion), as the company faced multiple challenges from high global inflation, geopolitical conflicts and uncertainties regarding the recovery of China’s economy.
Japan was the best-performing market last year with 10 percent growth annually, while Taiwan, China and emerging markets registered double-digit percentage declines, and North America and Europe single-digit percentage falls, company data showed.
This year, the company expects a return in growth and looks at operational efficiency optimization in the short term, driven by new orders for emerging IoT applications and deployment for new markets in the second half of the year, it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the