Trade
Welsh mission arrives
A trade mission from Wales composed of six company executives and two representatives from Wales Trade International will arrive in Taiwan today for a four-day visit. The mission will seek business and service opportunities with Taiwan companies, mainly in hi-tech sectors such as Internet integration systems, telecommunications, lasers and biotechnologies. The mission is slated to leave Taiwan May 7.
■ Headhunting
High demand for managers
Demand for executives and managers in emerging markets like China, Vietnam and India has grown unabated in recent months, a headhunting firm said on Saturday. Half of El Consult Singapore's recruitment assignments are for regional jobs, managing director Emily Foo told reporters. Last year they made up only 10 per cent of its business. The Sydney-based firm has seen more companies hiring managers and financial executives for postings in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City in the last three months, Foo said. Other vacancies are in India and Indonesia.
■ Accounting
Scammers seek tax break
US firms under investigation for artificially inflating their earnings during the '90s boom times have found a new way to turn the sow's ear into a silk purse. MCI, which has changed its name from WorldCom, Enron Corporation and Quest Communications Inter-national are demanding that the US government refund taxes they paid on the inflated income figures, reported the Wall Street Journal. They are likely entitled to the rebates under the law, the Journal quoted officials as saying. The figure could run into hundreds of millions of dollars the government must pay back. MCI, which changed its name from WorldCom, tops the fraud list by having misstated profits of at least US$9 billion. Health South inflated earnings by US$2 billion, and Enron by US$586 million. Health South and MCI each a have overpaid taxes by US$300 million.
■ Labor
Survey lauds Singapore
American businesses see housing and labor costs as causes for concern, but give high marks to Singapore's stable government and security, a survey showed yesterday. The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) survey included more than 100 senior executives and was part of a larger regional poll of six Southeast Asian countries. Out of nine local business environment factors here, only two were of major concern -- housing and labor costs. Half of those surveyed felt dissatisfied with housing prices, a 19 per cent hike from last year. Fifty per cent of the respondents said they were dissatisfied with labor costs, up from 35 per cent last year.
■ Labor
Chevron doubles profits
Higher crude oil and gas prices contributed to a doubling of first quarter profits to US$1.92 billion for the US energy giant ChevronTexaco Inc, the company said Friday in San Ramon, California. Higher profit margins in production, refineries and distribution also improved the results, the company said. The figures compared to US$725 million in earnings in the same period last year. Revenues for the second largest energy concern after ExxonMobil were up 46 percent to US$30.97 billion, compared to US$21.16 billion in the same period last year.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is