Industrial News

SSDs have reduced in price to the point where even new games consoles will ship with one next month, but for massive amounts of affordable storage in your PC, mechanical hard drives still win. 18TB drives are already available, and Seagate is now promising to increase that to 50TB by 2026. The company said last month that it still intends to ship a 20TB HAMR hard drive before the end of 2020, and this was reiterated in a Q1 2021 earnings call last week. However, Seagate went a step further, with CEO Dave Mosley stating, "we believe HAMR technology will be the industry’s path to scaling areal density [...]

Asurion, a global tech care company handling round-the-clock tech support for phones and smart home devices, seeks to bring 1,200 full-time jobs in Iloilo City with the opening of its new customer service center at Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao. “We are excited to expand our Philippines operations to Iloilo City, which will help us attract additional talent as the global demand for tech help continues to grow. We look forward to becoming a part of the Iloilo community,” said Gareth Boulton, Asurion Director of Care Operations in the Philippines. Asurion is expected to create more than 1,200 local full-time [...]

The Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. said Tuesday the industry suffered $4 billion in losses during the peak of the community quarantine period from March to August, when the government moved contain the spread of COVID-19.SEIPI president Dan Lachica said while the industry was expecting a 5-percent growth for 2020, the pandemic resulted in a double-digit decline in sales. “We are in a 15-percent contraction,” he said.He said aside from the health-related problems, the pandemic caused issues on supply, production and delivery.Lachica said about $500 million of transferred volume might not be recovered at all. “That is [...]

VIA optronics’ Proposed Initial Public Offering in the US VIA optronics AG (the “Company” or “VIA”), a 76%-owned German subsidiary of Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. (“IMI”) and a leading supplier of enhanced display solutions, filed on 4 September 2020, a Registration Statement on Form F-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) representing ordinary shares in the capital of the Company. The number of ordinary shares to be represented by each ADS, the number of ADS to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have [...]

The umbrella group of Philippine electronics exporters is backing a call to exempt current investments in Philippine Economic Zone Authority-accredited economic zones from a tax bill that seeks to rationalize the fiscal incentives system, which is feared to increase the cost of doing business in the country. The exemption was proposed by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, whose hometown of Lipa, Batangas, has tens of thousands of wor­kers employed by companies in economic zones. Danilo Lachica, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (Seipi), said this was “better” than having a transition period, which [...]

MANILA, Philippines — Two German electronics firms are shutting down operations in the country due to the uncompetitive business environment, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (SEIPI) said. SEIPI president Dan Lachica said in a statement yesterday one firm has shut down and another is set to halt operations, citing the current unfavorable business environment. He declined to name the firms but noted both are German companies. “The first to shut down manufactured electronic lighting equipment. The other, which will shut down next year, produces automotive electronics accessories,” he said in a Viber message. Both companies [...]

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala Corp.’s energy unit is planning to build two new solar plants in Central Luzon in a bid to become Southeast Asia’s largest renewables platform by 2025. In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Wednesday, Ayala-led AC Energy Philippines Inc. said the company board has approved the solar projects cumulatively worth P6.1 billion, which aim to generate a combined energy output of 150 megawatts (MW) by 2022. “While we are facing significant challenges amidst the current crisis, ACEN remains committed to investing in the country and drive renewables expansion,” Eric Francia, company president and chief executive, said [...]

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ electronics sector stands to benefit from increasing global demand for tech goods amid COVID-19 lockdowns worldwide, hence would help ease the domestic recession inflicted by the pandemic, the Washington-based Institute of International Finance (IIF) said. “Restrictions on people’s daily activities led to significant behavioral changes, which exacerbated pre-existing trends towards remote work and online learning. Such developments stimulated demand for electronic applications, computing devices, and other technology-related products,” IIF said in a July 29 report titled “EM Asia: COVID-Induced External Adjustment.” This bigger demand for high-tech gadgets already jacked up first-half exports of computer and component [...]

It looks like we'll be waving goodbye to the Mitsubishi Pajero soon. After releasing two “Final Editions” of the Pajero in Japan and in Germany, Mitsubishi is set to cease production of the long-running SUV. According to a report from Nikkei, Mitsubishi cited plummeting sales and the global pandemic, and are now preparing to shut down the Pajero Manufacturing Co. facility by next year. With the company no longer offering the Pajero in the domestic market, as well as the decline in sales in other global markets, the factory's output rate has dropped significantly. In 2019, Mitsubishi only made a total of 63,000 [...]

Bilyonaryo Jerry Liu has not stopped shedding his stake in his semiconductor firm based in Laguna Techno park. Liu reported selling five million shares of Cirtek Holdings Corp. at P6.57 on July 12, for a total value of P32.85 million. The 72-year old businessman has disposed a total of 30 million Cirtek shares in the last three months. He has reduced his stake in the company to 42.69 percent as of July 12 from 49.85 percent in April. UPDATED: Jerry Liu unloads P40M Cirtek shares In a meeting on July 17, Cirtek’s board approved a cash dividend of $0.001193137 or [...]