Entering the third quarter, the air freight market has split along regional lines, with Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore remaining tight on U.S. and European routes while demand in Europe has softened. Freight forwarders said the front-loading effect tied to U.S. tariff policy has gradually faded, and transpacific ocean rates have eased from earlier highs even as the peak season begins.
Acer Gadget, a subsidiary of Acer Group, reported strong second-quarter results for 2026 and said it expects growth to continue in the second half of 2026 as smart-life peripherals gained traction. The Taiwan-based maker said smart safes and smart door locks were supporting performance even as the PC market faces headwinds.
Wiwynn said changes in how it buys components with customers began to show results in the second quarter of 2026, helping lift gross margin to 9.3%. The server ODM said the shift also supported operating margin of 7.3% and net profit margin of 5.4% as it navigated AI product mix changes and higher component costs.
A cluster of measures signed and drafted since late July has shifted the center of gravity in US supply-chain policy away from finished electronics and toward the raw materials that feed them.
Wistron expects stronger AI server growth in August 2026 after reporting July revenue of NT$308.22 billion (approx. US$9.53 billion), down 4.2% month-over-month but up 60.8% year-over-year. Revenue for the first seven months reached NT$2.05 trillion, up 88.2% from a year earlier. The company expects AI server shipments to grow sequentially throughout the second half of 2026.
AI-driven demand for advanced packaging is giving old-generation panel fabs and equipment new value. As Taiwan's panel makers accelerate the phaseout of LCD capacity at the 5.5 generation and below, they are splitting into two tracks: selling factories to foundries and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers, or keeping lines in-house to develop fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP), through-glass via (TGV), redistribution layer (RDL), and glass core technologies.
