Chunghwa share sale called off
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday called off an offer of 180 million shares in Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to local investors, the ministry said. Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Chang Chia-chu (張家祝) said the proposed sale was cancelled because the ministry is still mulling ways to sell the state-controlled company's stock to as many buyers as possible. Chang didn't give a new timeframe for the sale. The ministry has hired Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) to manage the auction, which had been scheduled for yesterday and today. If the ministry completed the share sale smoothly, the move would help lower the government's stake in Chunghwa Telecom from 65.98 percent to 63.11 percent.
Consumer group urges action
Travel services and government agencies should play more responsible roles in handling the dysentery outbreak among tourists returning from Bali, the Consumers' Foundation (消基會) said in a statement yesterday. Travel agencies should immediately cancel their scheduled trips to Bali or replace Bali with safer destinations, the foundation said, citing Article 7 of Consumer Protection Law (消保法). The foundation said that if it is true Indonesia's tourism bureau described the illness as enterogastritis contraction, instead of dysentery, then the consumers and travel agencies should boycott Indonesia until the government makes improvement. It said the Tourism Bureau and Ministry of Foreign Affairs should provide people with complete information about the outbreak of dysentery.
Chinatrust to take charge
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) plans to take a one-time charge of NT$10 billion (US$293 million), prompting it to cut its full-year profit forecast, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday without saying where it got the information. The paper didn't say what the charge would be for. Chinatrust agreed to buy rival Grand Commercial Bank (萬通銀行) in July.
Hon Hai gets Wal-Mart order
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) won its first order from Wal-Mart Stores to supply about 300,000 portable DVD players to the US retailer for the Christmas season, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday. Hon Hai, which may increase shipments to as many as 400,000 DVD players a month, aims to sell to Wal-Mart more products such as flat-panel televisions for use in automobiles, the paper said. Hon Hai, which has yet to start production at its flat-panel display plant, will buy screens for the DVD players from Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the paper said. Matsushita buys e-books
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co will buy electronic books from First International Computer Inc (大眾電腦), a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday. The Japanese electronics company, which plans to increase purchasing from Taiwan of flat-panel televisions and telephones that can send and receive voice communications on the Internet, will send an executive to Taipei next week to complete procurement plans, the paper said.
NT dollar dips on speculation
The New Taiwan dollar slid on speculation the central bank will sell the currency to try to thwart a 1.4 percent gain this year that may erode profits for exporters. The currency fell 0.2 percent to close at NT$34.18 against its US counterpart, its weakest close since Aug. 28. Turnover was US$664 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