Petrol firm considers backup
Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) may ship crude oil to Taiwan from countries including Venezuela should its supply from the Middle East be disrupted, state-run Central News Agency said, citing unidentified company officials.
Chinese Petroleum, Taiwan's state oil refiner, may ship the crude from oil fields where it has equity stakes in countries including Venezuela, Taiwan's state-run news agency reported.
Taiwan imports almost all its oil and plans to reduce its reliance on supplies from the Middle East because of concern an invasion of Iraq could disrupt shipments.
Teco opens motor factory
Teco Electric & Machinery Co (東元電機) opened a motor factory in China's Wuxi yesterday. The US$70 million joint venture with Taiwan's China Steel Corp (中鋼), and Japan's Nippon Steel Corp, Marubeni Itochu Steel Inc, and Sumitomo Corp aims to make back its investment this year, and earn a further US$300 million over the next five years, a statement from the company said yesterday.
Teco currently has another factory in Suzhou, China and other facilities in Australia, North America, Southeast Asia and Taiwan.
Aerospace agreement signed
Australian avionics maker TMC teamed up with a Taiwan aeronautics company yesterday to open a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan.
Under the agreement signed in Taipei, TMC -- the world's third-largest avionics maker -- and Taiwan's Falcon Aerospace Corp (飛鷹航太) will invest NT$350 million (US$10.2 million) to develop, manufacture and market trunk mobile radios. Trunk mobile radios can transmit voice and data messages via radio waves. The radios are designed for companies with messengers and mobile service staff.
TMC is the second foreign avionics firm to open a R&D center in Taiwan this month.
Quanta to make Toshiba laptops
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's biggest supplier of notebook computers, signed on Toshiba Corp as a customer, a local newspaper said, citing unidentified Quanta officials.
Quanta expects to become in May the third Taiwanese supplier to Toshiba, which already buys laptop computers from Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) and Inventec Co (英業達) the report said.
Notebook computer sellers have lifted orders and pared prices with Taiwanese suppliers after Hewlett-Packard Co started a round of price cuts in recent months, the report said.
TSMC to boost production
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's biggest supplier of made-to-order chips, expects fourth-quarter factory use to rise to 85 percent, a local newspaper reported, citing unidentified employees.
The company used 61 percent of its production equipment in the fourth quarter last year after a slump in demand for chips started in the middle of last year.
Refco, Polaris to merge
Refco Group Ltd, the world's largest privately held futures broker, and Polaris Securities (寶來證券) will merge their Taiwan futures-trading operations into a single unit, Polaris said in a statement.
Polaris will own 57.5 percent of the venture, with Refco owning the remainder.
NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.027 to close at NT$34.730 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$430 million.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”