■ Telecom
Ningbo doubles profits
Ningbo Bird Co, the biggest seller of cellular phones in China, said profit almost doubled in the first half of this year as price cuts boosted its sales in the world's biggest mobile phone market. Net income rose to 107 million yuan (US$13 million), or 0.67 yuan a share, from 56 million yuan, or 0.35 yuan a share, in the first half of last year, the company said in a statement. Sales surged to 5.8 billion yuan from 2.2 billion yuan. Ningbo Bird's slice of the market rose to 8.1 percent in June from 5.2 percent in December, while Motorola's share fell to 19.3 percent from 26 percent and Nokia's dropped to 16.7 percent from 18.2 percent, according to figures from independent auditor Sino Marketing Research Ltd. China had an estimated 235 million mobile phone users at the end of June.
■ SARS outbreak
Disease cost HK$46 billion
SARS may have cost the city's economy as much as HK$46 billion (US$5.9 billion,) the South China Morning Post said, citing a report commissioned by the Better Hong Kong Foundation. The foundation, set up in 1995 by a group of Hong Kong's businesses to "enhance confidence" in the city, yesterday presented a report on the financial consequences of SARS to a government committee on economic recovery, the paper said. Consultants McKinsey & Co. drafted the report. Hong Kong's airlines, hotels, restaurants and retailers lost between HK$33 billion and HK$46 billion during the outbreak of SARS, the paper cited the report as saying. The report was based on figures from the Hong Kong Retail Management Association, the Travel Industry Council, the Hong Kong Hotel Association and government statistics. Retailers, who lost as much as HK$22 billion, were the hardest hit.
■ Airlines
Emirates expands to NZ
Emirates, the Middle East's fastest growing airline, began daily flights to Auckland, New Zealand's most populous city, from Sydney and Melbourne, as demand from travelers is increasing. The flights begin as Air New Zealand Ltd and Qantas Airways Ltd, Australia's largest airline, seek antitrust approval to form an alliance on the same routes. Virgin Blue Airlines Pty, Australia's No. 2 carrier, last month won approval from the government to operate unlimited services to New Zealand. The number of tourists to New Zealand rose in June by 6.9 percent from May, halting a two-month decline amid signs the SARS outbreak was under control. The pick up in demand is prompting airlines such as Singapore Airlines Ltd. to add three weekly services on its New Zealand routes from October.
■ Pensions
Japanese fund short 30%
The Japan Pension Fund Association's unfounded obligations almost doubled to ¥1.9 trillion (US$15.8 billion) in the year ended March 31 because yields from its investments fell, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without saying where it obtained the figure. The association, which manages pension assets for 25.8 million workers, had a yield of minus 12 percent on its investments in stocks and bonds as of March 31 due to falling share prices, the report said. The association will have to make up the shortfall, equal to about 30 percent of its assets, to enable payment of future pension benefits, the paper said. The association has pension obligations of ¥:7.93 trillion, with ¥:1.9 trillion unfunded, the report said.
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],”