ATMs set for IC makeover
Banks have agreed to accelerate a plan to replace magnetic-strip automatic-teller-machine (ATM) cards with safer IC cards ahead of schedule, the Bankers Association (銀行公會) said yesterday.
The nation's 17,588 ATMs will be completely upgraded to be able to read IC cards before next June, the association's statement read yesterday, adding that 3.5 million of the nation's 60 million magnetic ATM cards will be embedded with multiple encryption systems, which are difficult to forge, before the end of next year.
The cost of IC cards will be lowered from NT$70 to NT$35 each. The association said it is "up to individual banks to decide whether they will charge bank clients."
But Gary Tseng (曾國烈), director-general of the Bureau of Monetary Affairs under the Ministry of Finance, yesterday told reporters that the ministry hopes that banks can take on the cost, putting no burden on cardholders.
New-car sales jump
The nation's new-car sales jumped by 15.3 percent to 37,600 vehicles in October from a year earlier due to an improved economy and the recent replacement season, according to the statistics released by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications on Monday.
For the first 10 months, 345,000 new cars were sold in Taiwan, up 8.3 percent over a year ago, the ministry statistics showed.
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) secured the No.1 position by selling 9,441 cars last month. China Motor Co (中華汽車) tracked behind by selling 8,008 cars. Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) was ranked No. 3 with car sales reaching 6,787 units boosted by sales of its X-Trail recreational vehicles (RV) sales.
Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和) remained in fourth position with sales of 3,479 units. Prince Motor (太子汽車) beat Mazda Taiwan (馬自達汽車) to grab the No. 5 position due to sales of its compact car Solio.
Silicon to make Xbox chips
Silicon Integrated System Corp (SiS, 矽統科技), the world's third-largest maker of chipsets for personal computers, said it had agreed to develop semiconductors with Microsoft Corp for the US company's Xbox video-game console.
"We will produce a special chipset for the Xbox," said Silicon Integrated spokesman Jason Wu. "We'll probably start shipping the chips next year."
The Silicon Integrated chips will help the Xbox connect to input devices such as joysticks.
UMC approves UK sale
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said it will allow shareholders to sell in the US a 0.25 percent stake, which has a market value of about NT$1.3 billion (US$38.2 million).
The world's second largest made-to-order chipmaker didn't identify the shareholders or give other details in its statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Any shareholders excluding UMC employees that have a stake of 0.4 percent or larger will be authorized to participate in the sale, company spokesman Alex Hinnawi said. No timetable for the sale has been set, he said.
Firm to build China paper plant
Yuen Foong Yu Paper Manufac-turing Co (永豐餘) plans to spend more than NT$10 billion (US$294 million) to set up an industrial paper factory in China, a Chinese-language newspaper said.
The plant will have annual capacity of 1.1 million tonnes and will help the company tap China's market for industrial paper that's estimated to grow 10 percent annually, the paper said, citing company president Chung Hung-chih (鍾弘治).
NT dollar levels out
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday remained unchanged against its US counterpart, closing at NT$34.025 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$355 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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six