China Airlines to sell bonds
China Airlines Co (華航) plans to sell NT$10 billion (US$293.3 million) worth of bonds next year to pay for new Boeing aircraft and settle long-term loans, a company official said yesterday. The airline will use NT$7.5 billion (US$220 million) raised from the bond sale to pay for two B747-400 passenger planes to be delivered late next year, the official said on condition of anonymity. The two jets are among 22 aircraft the airline purchased last year. The deals include 12 medium-range Airbus A330-300s and 10 long-haul Boeing B747-400s. The company would use the balance of the bond proceeds to repay long-term loans, the official said. It aims to sell the bonds in February at a premium of between 5 percent and 20 percent over its stock price, she added.
Chip price hike expected
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufactu-ring Co (TSMC, 台積電), its Taiwa-nese rivals and those in China will raise chip prices because orders are increasing and their factories are operating at full capacity, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information. TSMC, United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and Shanghai's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際集成電路) will raise prices by up to 15 percent in the first quarter, the report said.
Money supply grows 5.7%
Taiwan's money supply last month grew at the fastest pace in two years because the stock market picked up and more funds were invested from overseas, the central bank said. M2, the broadest measure of the money supply, grew 5.7 percent last month from a year earlier after expanding 4.9 percent in September, the bank said in a statement. M2, which measures currency in circulation, checking and savings accounts and money-market funds, had its fastest growth since October 2001. The M1B money supply, which excludes time deposits and foreign-currency deposits included in the M2 money supply, rose 19 percent last month after increasing 16 percent in September. M1A, which tracks net currency in circulation plus checking accounts and passbook deposits, grew 18 percent after expanding 13 percent in September, the central bank said.
Bank loans up 2.5% in October
Bank lending in Taiwan rose 2.5 percent last month from a year earlier as the nation's improving economy encouraged more companies to borrow money to fund expansion. Total loans by 405 financial institutions -- including the central bank, local and foreign lenders, and credit cooperatives -- rose to NT$13.71 trillion (US$402 billion) last month, from NT$13.37 trillion last year. Bank lending fell 0.2 percent from September.
Investment rules could slacken
The government could allow the nation's insurers to invest overseas without seeking permission each time, provided the amount is within the approved limit, a Chinese-language newspaper said, citing an unidentified government official. The government allowed insurers to put in more than NT$1 trillion (US$29 million) in overseas securities so far, of which NT$900 billion have been invested, the paper said. In January the legislature approved a rule change, allowing insurers to invest as much as 35 percent of their assets overseas, compared with a previous limit of 20 percent.
NT dollar remains weak
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday remained weak against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.040 to close at NT$34.110 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$459.5 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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy