■ Internet
Spam problem growing
Just as pressure is mounting in the US Congress and elsewhere to reduce unsolicited commercial e-mail, so, too, is the amount of e-mail being sent. Last year alone, people and businesses around the world created 5 billion gigabytes of data, according to a study by the University of California at Berkeley. That is a 30 percent increase in stored information from 1999, the last time the study was conducted. That's also enough new e-mail -- junk or otherwise -- to fill 500,000 Libraries of Congress, the study said. It works out to about 800 megabytes a person, or the equivalent of a stack of books 30 feet high, according to the study, by the university's School of Information Management and Systems.
■ Trade
S Korea posts record exports
South Korea posted record-high exports amounting to US$19.04 billion in October, an increase of 26.2 percent from the same month last year, South Korea's commerce ministry said yesterday. The ministry said South Korea had a US$10.79 billion aggregate trade surplus for the first 10 months of the year, thanks largely to shipments of cars, semiconductors, wireless telecommunications and computers to China, the US and Europe, the top three destinations for South Korean exports. Commerce minister Yoon Jin-Shik forecast exports of US$190 billion this year, surpassing his ministry's previous forecast of US$170 billion. "The country's exports are regaining strength amid the doldrums of sluggish consumer spending and stingy corporate capital expenditures," Yoon told reporters.
■ Automobiles
Honda to make Thai Fit
Japanese auto maker Honda Motor Co Ltd will begin production and sales of its popular small car, Fit, in Thailand this month, a newspaper said yesterday. Honda Automobile Thailand, a local production unit of the Japanese company, will produce 20,000 units a year, the Sankei Shimbun said. Honda will announce the plan as early as next week, it said. Honda Automobile Thailand has already expanded its production capacity from 70,000 units to 120,000 a year at a cost of ?4 billion (US$36 million) ahead of the launch of Fit, which will be named Jazz in Thailand. It will be the second production of Fit overseas following its output at a Brazilian plant. Honda also plans to produce Fit models in China in 2005. Honda Automobile Thailand may export the small cars to its neighbor countries, including Indonesia, Sankei said.
■ Privatization
Indonesia plans gas sale
Indonesia plans to divest 30 percent of the state gas company through an initial public offering in December, press reports said yesterday. "The divestment is planned according to schedule in mid-December and it cannot be late. Before the holidays or after Lebaran there must by an IPO," W.M.P. Simanjuntak, president director of PT State Gas Company, said as quoted by the Media Indonesia daily. Lebaran is the celebration and start of holidays that will follow the Muslim fasting month at the end of this month. Divestment had been planned for November but a number of European and American investors took issue with an audit of the company's 2001 finances by Arthur Andersen.
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],”