■ Taisugar to shed staff
Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) chairman Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) confirmed yesterday that the state-run company will downsize its personnel by 45 percent, or 2,500 staff, by January next year.
The move, which aims to alleviate the company's financial difficulties, is estimated to save Taisugar NT$3.7 billion annually, Wu said.
"Our high personnel cost, which is higher than that in private companies, has been our largest obstacle," Wu told a press conference yesterday. "The cut in personnel is the only way to maintain the company."
Although Taisugar reported NT$2.19 billion in pretax revenues last year, Wu said land sales made the financial results look good.
■ Ministry to study rumors
The Ministry of Finance is investigating rumors spread to depositors of Kaohsiung Business Bank's (高雄企銀) Linyuan branch that nearly triggered a small-scale bank run on Monday.
"A life insurer's salesperson allegedly spread rumors that the bank is failing to panic depositors so as to entice them into withdrawing their bank money to buy insurance," Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧), deputy director-general of the ministry's bureau of monetary affairs, told a press conference yesterday.
Huang assured the bank's clients that the bank, despite being debt ridden, is fully covered by the nation's deposit insurance system and that no bank clients would suffer any losses.
Citing the Bank Law, Huang said that employees of the life insurer under investigation, if convicted of spreading the rumor, face up to a five-year sentence or a maximum fine of NT$10 million.
■ Chen promotes silk industry
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said Monday that the construction of Taiwan's first silk weaving industrial zone will be completed in June next year at Touliou, Yunlin County.
Speaking at the anniversary of the Taiwan Silk and Filament Weaving Industrial Association (台灣區絲織公會), Chen said Taiwan's silk weaving industry is competitive in the world market with exports amounting to NT$102 billion (US$3 billion) a year.
■ Silicon Integrated cuts forecast
Silicon Integrated System Corp (矽統), the world's third-largest maker of chipsets for personal computers, cut this year's pretax profit forecast by 72 percent, blaming competition and a decline in prices.
The company cut its forecast to NT$201 million (US$6 million) from NT$708 million, Silicon Integrated said in a statement, citing unaudited estimates. The company didn't provide a net income forecast.
Silicon Integrated last week said sales last month fell 21.6 percent to NT$1.4 billion from a year earlier. Sales declined from NT$1.6 billion in the previous month.
■ Compal shares hit daily limit
Shares of Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊) closed up by their daily limit yesterday on their stock exchange debut as the Taipei-based cellphone maker reported record sales of NT$2.16 billion last month, up 267.41 percent from a year ago.
Compal Communications rose NT$7.50, or the 7 percent market limit, to NT$117.50 on the TAIEX.
The company, which supplies handsets to Motorola Inc, Panasonic and Alcatel on a contract basis, expected shipments for next year rise to 7.5 million units, from 3.5 million units this year, company president Henry Lee (李南雄) said last month.
■ NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar strengthened against its US counterpart yesterday, advancing NT$0.045 to close at NT$34.015 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$449 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