■ ProMOS plant to cost billions
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德), the nation's second-largest computer memory-chip maker, is planning to spend US$3.2 billion over the next five years to build a new chip plant, Dow Jones reported yesterday, citing company spokesman Albert Lin (林育中). The company may build its first 12-inch-wafer DRAM (dynamic random access memory) plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) in Taichung, Yang Wen-ke (楊文科), deputy director general of the park's administration, told the Taipei Times earlier this month. The ground-breaking ceremony is scheduled to take place on April 8, and US$1.6 billion will be spent in the first three years, the Dow Jones report quoted Lin as saying, adding that the company has no plan to have partners for the new fab. ProMOS more than doubled its proposed capital spending this year to US$560 million.
■ Canada lowest-cost nation in G7
Canada is ranked the lowest-cost country in the G7 countries in terms of business operation, the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei (CTOT) said yesterday, citing a cost study by KPMG. Canada's cost advantage is most significant for industries involved in research and development, which is important for Taiwan as it expands its knowledge-based economy, the office said in a statement. "Business ties between Canada and Taiwan continue to grow," said CTOT Executive Director Ted Lipman. "This is especially true in sectors where Canada's R&D strengths are seen to complement Taiwan's commercialization capabilities." KPMG's 60-page report presents an analysis of business costs in 121 international cities located in 11 industrialized countries: all the G7 countries plus Australia, Iceland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The report compares after-tax costs of starting and operating a business for a period of 10 years. The 10-month international study of leading industrial countries showed that Canada has a 9 percent cost advantage over its southern neighbor, the US. Aided by the strength of the euro, Canada's cost advantage over the UK and continental European countries has also increased.
■ Plastics and rubber show opens
The 2004 Taipei International Plastics and Rubber Industry Show opened yesterday at the Taiwan World Trade Center Exhibition Hall. A total of 344 companies from around the world are showing their products at 1,818 booths during the four-day event, according to the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, which is jointly sponsoring the fair with the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry. Well-known world-class companies, such as Toshiba, Matsui and Shi Plastics from Japan and those from the France, Italy, the US and South Korea, are also participating in the show.
■ First Financial issues forecast
First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), Taiwan's third-biggest financial services provider, forecast net income of NT$10.03 billion (US$300.9 million) for this year, it said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. First Financial has yet to announce its audited net income figure for last year. Its commercial banking arm, First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), sold NT$4.28 billion of bonds backed by residential mortgages to domestic investors on March 1 in a private sale.
■ NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday strengthened against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.065 to close at NT$33.228 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$759 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],”