No takers for bankrupt bank
The operations, assets and liabilities of the bankrupt Kaohsiung Business Bank (高雄企銀) failed to be sold by the government for the second time after bidding fell short of the reserve price, the Ministry of Finance's Central Deposit Insurance Corp (中央存保) said. Inviting bids for the second time this week, the government received only one offer from Waterland Financial Holdings (國票金控), said Wang Nan-hua (王南華), executive vice president at Central Deposit Insurance Corp. The sale, first suggested in June, was delayed until this month because of legal matters. Potential bidders such as Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), which showed interest initially, have expanded their businesses since then through other means, Wang said. Chinatrust Financial, the nation's fourth-largest financial services company by market value, bought rival Grand Commercial Bank (萬通銀行) in July through a share-swap. Central Deposit Insurance, which is helping to supervise the failed lender, is planning to hold a new auction in March, Wang said. Kaohsiung Bank has been in government custody since January last year.
Money supply up 5.6 percent
Taiwan's money supply grew 5.6 percent in the year to last month, after reporting its fastest growth in two years in October, the central bank said. Overseas inflows dropped, causing a slowdown last month, the central bank said in a statement. M2, the broadest measure of the money supply, expanded 5.7 percent in October compared to a year ago. Taiwan's M1B money supply, which excludes time deposits and foreign-currency deposits included in the M2 money supply, rose 19.1 percent last month.
SMIC wins Elpida contract
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際集成電路) will make memory chips next year for Elpida Memory Inc, a joint venture between Japan's Hitachi Ltd and NEC Corp. SMIC will make dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips designed by Elpida starting from the fourth quarter of next year, Tokyo-based Elpida said in a statement. The contract is effective for five years from the date the Chinese company starts production. The chips' line width will be 0.10 microns, Japan's only chip memory maker said. The output volume is yet to be decided. Elpida last week announced it suspended talks with Taiwan's ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) to outsource memory chip production because the two companies failed to agree on terms.
Chinese tourists a plus: Siew
Allowing Chinese tourists to enter Taiwan would inject new life into the domestic tourism industry, said Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), the chief presidential economic advisor, on Wednesday. Siew, the chairman of the Chunghua Institute for Economic Research, together with other economic advisors, is scheduled to meet President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) today. At that meeting, the advisors are expected to brief the president on strategies promoting domestic tourism. These include the development of educational and training programs at institutes of higher learning, Siew said.
NT dollar gains more ground
The New Taiwan dollar was higher against the greenback yesterday, rising NT$0.011 to close at NT$34.045 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$256 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
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],”