Tag: electronics

Apple: parts suppliers profit from alternative customers

Apr 26, 2013 7:04am by Sarah Mishkin

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Apple may be souring the market with its unimpressive forecasts, but not all the suppliers who rely on the US tech group for orders are suffering.

Shares in Largan Precision, a Taiwanese lens maker, gained 7 per cent on Friday after it reported stronger than anticipated earnings for the last quarter and, against expectations, forecast more growth ahead. Its secret? Growth of other brands has been strong enough to offset Apple. That’s a change from the days when Apple was component companies’ key driver of growth. Continue reading »

Tags: Apple, electronics, smartphones Posted in Global, Taiwan | Permalink

Philippines: electronic exports fall 32%

Mar 12, 2013 8:34am by Stefan Wagstyl

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Electronics companies need strong nerves in the face of the industry’s inherent volatility. Analysts had expected the Philippines to see a solid gain of around 6 per cent in exports in January. In the event, Manila on Tuesday posted a 2.7 per cent decline – thanks largely to a 32 per cent plunge in electronics shipments.

The next few months should be better, given the signs of recovery in the US. But the unpredictability of the markets make life tough for the electronics groups and their suppliers. Continue reading »

Tags: electronics, Philippines economy, trade Posted in Philippines | Permalink

Samsung/Sharp deal: sign of the times

Mar 6, 2013 8:50am by Stefan Wagstyl

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Here’s a moment in Asian corporate history: Samsung Electronics is buying a stake in Sharp, in the first investment by a South Korean group in a big Japanese company in consumer electronics, one of Japan’s flagship industries.

The deal announced on Wednesday is too small to revive the struggling Sharp: Samsung Electronics is investing only Y10.3bn and buying just 3 per cent. But it’s a sign that the South Koreans think Sharp has a future. At the very least, they want to secure a key source of LCD panels. Continue reading »

Tags: electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp Posted in South Korea | Permalink

Canon hit by Japan-China dispute

Jan 30, 2013 8:26am by Stefan Wagstyl

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It’s not just the Japanese carmakers that have suffered from their country’s territorial dispute with China.

Canon, the camera and office equipment manufacturer, reported on Wednesday that its sales in China fell by more than 30 per cent last year due, as the company put it, to a “cooling off of demand in China during the latter half of the year”.

The Beijing-Tokyo spat compounded difficulties caused by weak economic growth in Europe, consumers switching from cameras to smartphones, and the strength of the yen. The group’s results – and its 2013 forecast – fell well short of analysts’ forecasts. Continue reading »

Tags: Canon, China-Japan, electronics Posted in Asia, China, Japan | Permalink

Taiwan exports recover, sort of

Oct 8, 2012 10:14am by Josh Noble

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Some more good news for the global economy. After Friday’s fall in US unemployment, another key indicator – albeit a far smaller one – swung in positive territory: Taiwanese exports jumped back into double digit growth in September.

The 10.4 per cent increase in year on year overseas shipments was led by electronics, and follows a 4.2 per cent drop in the previous month. Analysts had been expecting an increase, but only around the 3 per cent range. Continue reading »

Tags: electronics, exports, Taiwan economy Posted in Taiwan | Permalink

Slovakia gains as manufacturers transfer jobs from western to central Europe

Aug 28, 2012 12:50pm by Jan Cienski

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The economic gloom seeping out of western Europe is creating increasing difficulties for the small and open economies of central Europe – with both Hungary and the Czech Republic now in recession.

However, Slovakia, the smallest and most open of the three countries, is powering ahead, notching up 2.7 per cent annual GDP growth in the second quarter, thanks largely to the European motor industry. Continue reading »

Tags: autos, CEE, economy, electronics Posted in Czech Republic, Europe, Hungary, Slovakia | Permalink

HTC: not so smart now

Aug 20, 2012 8:49am by Sarah Mishkin

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Taiwan’s HTC can’t get a break.

Sales are falling, low-cost mainland competitor Xiaomi just released a phone whose specs are competitive with a high-end HTC model, and on Monday the company announced a $40m write off on its stake in an internet gaming company. What’s a company to do? Continue reading »

Tags: Apple, electronics, HTC, Samsung Posted in China, Taiwan | Permalink

Taiwan’s July exports: dismal

Aug 7, 2012 12:05pm by Sarah Mishkin

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Taiwan’s exports accelerated their downward slide last month as worried consumers across the world hold off on upgrading or buying new electronics.

Exports fell 11.6 per cent in July compared with last year, after having fallen 3.2 per cent in June. Imports, many of which are of products used by local manufacturers, also fell. Continue reading »

Tags: electronics, exports, trade Posted in Asia, Taiwan | Permalink

Samsung hits the acquisition trail

Jul 17, 2012 11:15am by Stefan Wagstyl

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In financial terms, a $300m acquisition is no big deal for Samsung Electronics, given its $150bn market capitalisation. But in terms of technology, strategy and history, the South Korean group’s acquisition of the mobile business of UK-based CSR matters a lot.

As the company’s legal battles with Apple highlight, technology is crucial to Samsung’s future, as it moves from technological follower to technological leader in global markets. As the group itself has acknowledged, this applies in both hardware and software. Continue reading »

Tags: CSR, electronics, Samsung Electronics Posted in Asia, South Korea | Permalink

TCL gets nod for TVs for Ikea

Apr 19, 2012 10:36am by Josh Noble

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For those who moan endlessly about unsightly cables running out of the TV or DVD player, help may at last be at hand. Sweden’s Ikea and China’s TCL Multimedia have come up with an answer, furniture with built-in appliances. Continue reading »

Tags: consumers, electronics, Ikea, TCL Posted in China | Permalink

Rival chipmakers soar on Elpida woes

Feb 17, 2012 9:45am by Song Jung-a

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South Korean chipmakers headed by Samsung Electronics could be forgiven for rubbing their hands with glee at the sight of the financial troubles at their Japanese rival Elpida Memory.

With Elpida’s survival in doubt, shares of Samsung hit a record high of Won1.18m on heavy foreign buying on Friday while second-ranked Hynix Semiconductor was trading at Won28,850, near a nine-month high. But what might be good news for the producers won’t be welcome for their customers. Continue reading »

Tags: electronics Posted in South Korea | Permalink

LG Electronics: upgrade to smartphones

Feb 8, 2012 11:00am by Song Jung-a

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LG Electronics, the world’s third-largest mobile phone maker, is finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Its shares have risen nearly 20 per cent so far this year on its improved earnings outlook after the company’s handset business reported a small profit.

The company’s (A066570:KSE) shares closed up 2.41 per cent at Won89,100 on Wednesday, near an eight-month high of Won90,700 touched last Friday, as investors cheer LG’s turnaround. LG swung to an operating profit of Won23bn in the fourth quarter from a Won246bn loss a year earlier, helped by a turnaround in its handset business. Continue reading »

Tags: electronics, telecoms Posted in Asia, South Korea | Permalink

Taiwan: chip makers feel the heat

Dec 22, 2011 8:41am by Robin Kwong

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Talks of consolidation are rife again in the struggling D-Ram memory chip industry, but there seems little prospect for a tie-up between the biggest industry players in Japan and Taiwan.

Wu Chia-chau, chairman of Nanya Technology, Taiwan’s biggest D-Ram maker, on Thursday dismissed a Nikkei business article that said his company and Japan’s Elpida were considering a possible merger. That’s a pity because the industry needs to slim to get into better shape. Continue reading »

Tags: electronics Posted in Taiwan | Permalink

Samsung surges on smartphones

Dec 1, 2011 11:07am by Song Jung-a

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Things can’t get much better than this for Samsung’s shareholders.

Shares in Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest technology company by sales, hit a record high of Won1.08m ($960m) on Thursday, and closed up nearly 7 per cent at Won1.074m, despite cooling demand for technology products amid the global economic slowdown. Continue reading »

Tags: consumers, electronics, Samsung Posted in South Korea | Permalink

Fatscreen is the new flatscreen

Oct 25, 2011 12:19pm by Robin Kwong

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Over the past decade, technological advancements have made televisions thinner and thinner, with giant cathode ray tube sets replaced by flatscreen TVs whose thickness are now measured in millimeters.

Starting next year, however, ‘fatter’ flatscreen TVs may be making a comeback in emerging markets, according to one screen maker. Continue reading »

Tags: consumers, electronics Posted in Global, Taiwan | Permalink

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Tag: electronics

Apple: parts suppliers profit from alternative customers

Philippines: electronic exports fall 32%

Samsung/Sharp deal: sign of the times

Canon hit by Japan-China dispute

Taiwan exports recover, sort of

Slovakia gains as manufacturers transfer jobs from western to central Europe

HTC: not so smart now

Taiwan’s July exports: dismal

Samsung hits the acquisition trail

TCL gets nod for TVs for Ikea

Rival chipmakers soar on Elpida woes

LG Electronics: upgrade to smartphones

Taiwan: chip makers feel the heat

Samsung surges on smartphones

Fatscreen is the new flatscreen

BB: time to register

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