Mitsubishi wins incinerator deal
Japan's biggest heavy machinery maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd announced yesterday that it has received an order from Taiwan for a large-scale waste-incineration and power-generation plant.
Under the deal worth ¥7 billion (US$64 million), Mitsubishi Heavy will be in charge of engineering work, including basic design of the plant, and supplying incinerators and boilers, a spokeswoman said.
The plant is scheduled to start operation in May 2006 and is equipped to process 226.8 tonnes a day and generate 11.8 megawatts, Mitsubishi said in a statement.
Fortune Energy Corp will build and operate the plant in Miaoli County and the government plans to locate at least one incineration plant in each county.
CETRA promotes brand ties
The China External Trade Devel-opment Council (CETRA) will introduce owners of world-renowned brand names to outstanding Tai-wanese manufacturers for business alliances under its international-brand alliance project.
Tsai Wen-kai, director of the Taiwan Trade Center in San Francisco, California said Wednesday that the program is aimed at promoting the cooperation between Taiwanese manufacturers and foreign brand owners in developing the world market through brand authorization and through good use of their distribution channels.
Under the project, a Scottish textile company, Kinloch Anderson Co, on Wednesday signed a brand licensing agreement with San Sun Hat & Cap Co (三勝製帽) in Taipei, CETRA said.
Tatung looking to raise cash
Tatung Co (大同), the country's fourth-largest electronics maker, plans to sell a 6 percent stake in unit Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) overseas to provide cash for operations. The shares are worth NT$4.6 billion (US$136.3 million).
Tatung said it will offer 300 million shares in the nation's third-largest maker of flat-panel displays for NT$15.30 each.
Chunghwa has about 5.1 billion shares outstanding.
Tatung owns 60 percent of Chunghwa Picture. Tatung said on June 20 it expects to return to a profit next year as Chunghwa Picture helps boost its parent's profit.
Tatung and Chunghwa Picture both had losses last year and in 2001.
Uni-President deal cancelled
Nissin Food Products Co, which gave the world instant noodles, has canceled an agreement to buy a 10 percent stake in a unit of Uni-President Enterprises Co (統一).
The cancellation won't affect the company's earnings forecast, Osaka-based Nissin Food said in a release distributed through the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
In May, Nissin Food said it agreed to team up with the Tai-wanese company to expand the instant food business in China.
Personnel shift at HSBC unit
HSBC Asset Management (Taiwan) Ltd (匯豐中華投信), a fund unit of the world's second-biggest bank by market value, hired Winnie Tiao (刁明華) to replace Vincent Lai (賴政昇) as chief investment officer, effective yesterday.
Prior to joining HSBC, Tiao was chief investment officer at Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co (國泰投信), a unit of the nation's biggest financial services company, Cathay Financial Holdings Co (國泰金控), HSBC said in a statement.
HSBC's Taiwan asset management unit, which offers 17 funds, had about NT$83 billion (US$2.46 billion) under management as of Sept. 30.
NT dollar maintains strength
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday maintained its strength against the US dollar, rising NT$0.025 to close at NT$33.743 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was NT$591 million.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained