■ TSMC, UMC ok buybacks
The board of directors at the world's two largest makers of made-to-order chips Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) approved share buyback plans yesterday, the companies said. TSMC plans to buy back 300 million common shares traded on the TAIEX at price ranging between NT$38.5 and NT$95 a share. The shares repurchased will be cancelled and deducted from TSMC's current outstanding shares. "Due to the recent plunge of TAIEX after the election, TSMC decided to buy back shares for the in interests of shareholders," company spokesperson Lora Ho (何麗梅) said in a statement released yesterday. It is the first time the TSMC has launched such buyback plan. UMC plans to buy back 360 million common shares, or 2.23 percent of total shares, traded on the TAIEX at price between NT$19.6 and NT$47.5 in next two months ending May 23. UMC plans to spend up to NT$17.1 billion for its share buyback.
■ CAL posts NT$1.7bn profit
China Airlines (華航) officially announced its financial figures for last year after they were reviewed and approved by its board at a meeting yesterday. The carrier reported operating revenue worth at NT$75.859 billion (US$2.2 billion) last year and after-tax profit amounting to NT$1.779 billion. Passenger revenue, which was seriously affected by the outbreak of SARS in the first half of last year, reached NT$ 36.565 billion. Cargo revenue, accounting for 46 percent of the carrier's annual turnover last year, totalled NT$ 34.891 billion. The airlines have generated operating revenue at NT$14.38 billion in the first two months this year, an increase of 12.6 percent year-on-year. The annual operating revenue and net profit this year are estimated at NT$ 89 billion and NT$3.1 billion, respectively. The carrier said it would continue its fleet simplification program and cost-control policies as well as introducing seven new aircraft, including three A300-300 passenger jets, two B747-400 passenger jets and two B747-400F freighters.
■ Firms delay conferences
Taiwanese high-tech companies including International Semicon-ductor Technology Ltd (飛信半導體), Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊科技) and TXC Corp (台灣晶技) suspended their investors' press conferences to prevent stock prices from tumbling on political instability, the firms announced yesterday. International Semiconductor, a chip-testing and packaging arm of Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), rescheduled its meeting to April 8.
■ Shin Kong raises bank stake
Shin Kong Group (新光集團) increased its stake in International Bank of Taipei (台北商銀), a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday, without saying where it obtained the information. Shin Kong Securities Co (新光証券) and Taiwan Securities Co (台證証券), units of Shin Kong Group, yesterday bought 9.6 million shares of International Bank of Taipei. The brokerages' transactions accounted for almost nine-tenths of the trading in the lender's shares, the newspaper said.
■ New cargo service to start
Cargo airline Air Hong Kong Ltd said yesterday that it will launch services between Hong Kong and Taipei beginning Sunday. The Hong Kong-based company said it will operate the new route five times a week, mainly serving DHL Worldwide Express Inc, which owns 40 percent of the firm. Cathay Pacific Airways owns the remaining stake.
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],”