Industrial News

The Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Brussels attended the launching of Xinyx Design’s branch in the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, The Netherlands on 20 October 2022. Xinyx Design, an Integrated Circuit (IC) design company headquartered in Alabang, Muntinlupa and headed by its General Manager, Charade Avondo started in 2007 with six (6) employees. The company has grown to 348 employees with a branch in Cagayan de Oro and now in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Ms. Avondo targeted to set up a base in Europe where Xinyx can provide engineering services directly to European companies. Xinyx was able to [...]

The retrenchment by the Mactan Export Processing Zone's largest group of companies of a quarter of its workers is 'a portent of worse things to come' says Partido Manggagawa CEBU, Philippines – Five major garment companies at the Mactan Economic Processing Zone (MEPZ) in Lapu-Lapu City announced the lay-off of more than 4,000 workers in a joint statement on Thursday, September 29. Mactan Apparels, Metro Wear, Globalwear Manufacturing, Feeder Apparel Corporation, and Vertex One Apparel Philippines, all belonging to the Sports City group of companies, said the firing involved a quarter of their workforce. “As the world is now on [...]

Energy prices have surged this year due to pent-up consumer demand post-pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Solar-plus-storage systems could help reduce prices and ensure energy security. The internet of things augmented by artificial intelligence is vital for improving solar generation, optimizing battery management, increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs. Energy prices have surged sharply this year due to several factors, including the release of pent-up demand post-COVID and supply disruption due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The sudden increase in energy prices and its contribution to rising inflation is causing policy distress globally as consumers face soaring [...]

A young engineer called Robert Sansone won the first prize, and winnings of $75,000, at this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest international high school STEM competition. As per Smithsonian Magazine, his new invention could one day transform the electric vehicle (EV) industry. It is a synchronous reluctance motor with improved performance over previous models. Typically these types of motors are used for pumps and fans, but they aren’t powerful enough for EVs. Sansone’s new model improves the torque of these motors, which don’t require costly and often unethically sourced rare-earth metals. A promising young engineer [...]

Semiconductors stocks tumbled after Micron Technology Inc. became the latest chipmaker to warn about slowing demand, triggering concern the industry is heading into a painful downturn. In the US, the Philadelphia semiconductor index sank 4.6% on Tuesday with all 30 members in the red, its biggest fall in about two months. In Asia, chip stocks slumped from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to Samsung Electronics Co., SK Hynix Inc., and Tokyo Electron Ltd. Investors are growing increasingly skittish the notoriously cyclical industry is hurtling toward a prolonged slump after years of widespread shortages that led to heavy investments in capacity. “We [...]

It looks like the Philippines could be on its way to producing its own batteries for electric cars. With Republic Act No. 11697 or the ‘Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act’ now a law, several companies are already busy taking advantage of the recently passed bill. One of those companies is San Miguel Corporation (SMC) which has plans to build a USD 500 million (or PHP 27.75 billion) electric car battery plant in the Dinagat Islands province. This was confirmed by Governor Nilo Demerey Jr. who recently got to meet with SMC president and CEO Ramon S. Ang last Thursday. According to Demerey, [...]

After contending with a global pandemic, geopolitical tensions and conflict further complicate an already uphill battle for the global manufacturing industry. IPC’s industry sentiment report shows us its main pain points for each region.  The electronics manufacturing industry is a major cog in the global economy. To the multitudes working outside it, we ordinarily take its machinations and complexities for granted. Though we may not be aware of much about it, we not only feel its impact every day, we are direct contributors to how it develops by simply using everything around us that is powered by electronics. When major [...]

BRITISH technology company Dyson Ltd. is planning to open a software lab in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, creating 400 software engineering jobs for research and development (R&D) work over the next three years. The project is part of a global Dyson research expansion, in which £2.75 billion (P177 billion) will be invested into developing new technologies and products over five years. Scott Maguire, Dyson chief operating officer, said in an online press conference on Thursday that the company plans to tap into the talent pool from local technical universities. “The investment that we’re putting in there is very much around us [...]

Numerous chipmakers pulled in funding in November 2020, with investors putting money into interconnects, memories, AI hardware, and quantum computing. Launching from stealth was a startup aiming to combine AI and 5G. Autonomous delivery did well, too, with one company raising a massive $500M. This month, we take a look at 28 companies that raised a collective $1.1B. Semi & design Connectivity company Kandou drew $92.3M in Series C funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners and joined by new investors Climb Ventures and Swiss Select Opportunities among other existing investors. Kandou provides ultra-short reach (USR) SerDes PHY IP using its Chord multi-wire signaling approach to improve signal integrity and latency. [...]

Carvey Maigue of Mapua University has been shortlisted for the James Dyson Award 2020 for his system called AuREUS, a device that transforms rotten fruit and vegetables into clean, renewable electricity. His invention was among 1,800 entries from young inventors and design engineers from 27 countries around the world. The brief was simple: Design something that solves a problem. Despite the pandemic, students met virtually to come up with solutions to global problems. From all these entries, only 20 were chosen to be potentially crowned as International Winner, Sustainability Winner, or International Runners-Up by the James Dyson Foundation. Maigue's AuREUS system [...]