■ Non-performing loans fall
As of July, Taiwanese banks saw their non-performing loans (NPLs) reach NT$730.9 billion, down from NT$885.8 billion at the end of last year, the Bureau of Monetary Affairs said at a press conference yesterday. The bad loan ratio, including assets under surveillance, fell to 4.82 percent at the end of July from 6.08 percent on Dec. 31 of last year and from a record 8 percent in March 2002. Taiwanese lenders have written off a combined NT$1.29 trillion in bad debts between January 1999 and July 2004, according to the bureau's deputy director general, Jong Huey-jen (鍾慧貞).
■ S&P downgrades CDF
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services yesterday lowered its long-term and short-term credit ratings on China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) to BBB and A-3 from BBB+ and A-2 respectively after the company forecast an unprofitable 2004 and changed its first-half profit to a NT$4.7 billion loss. "The rating actions reflect the higher-than-expected risk in the group's direct investment portfolio, which has been vulnerable to asset valuation losses," S&P credit analyst Ryan Tsang said. S&P said the outlook on China Development Financial remains negative, reflecting uncertainties surrounding the group's future strategic focus, corporate culture and risk management, as well as the challenges the group faces in improving its venture capital and direct investment businesses.
■ Post ATMs offer cash-advances
Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政公司) announced that starting today cash-advances will be offered for credit cardholders by most of its 3,150 ATMs nationwide. As the company owns 18.5 percent of the nation's 17,000 ATMs, this new service is expected to expand the cash-advance market scope by NT$2 billion per month, according to Visa International's estimates. To commemorate the launch of the service, MasterCard International is scheduled to hold a lucky cash draw every week from Oct. 1 to Dec. 4 for MasterCard users borrowing cash from postal ATMs.
■ China handset shipments drop
China's handset sales fell by 5.5 percent to 14.92 million units in the second quarter from 16.45 million three quarters ago mostly due to high inventories, China-based Information and Commun-ication Technology Co (中華資通) said yesterday. "The data shows that China's mobile phone market is entering a new phase with stable growth from the past's high-fly expan-sion," said president Vincent Huang (黃富琮) in a statement released yesterday. Motorola Inc, the world's No.2 handset vendor, grabbed the top position in China by selling 4.07 million phones in the first six months, according to the research house. Finnish Nokia Oyj and South Korean Samsung Electronics Co followed. Taiwanese brand Dbtel Inc (大霸電子) ranked No.7 by selling 1.85 million handsets, outperforming its Taiwanese peers.
■ Asustek Q2 earnings rise
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the world's largest maker of motherboards, had a 30 percent gain in net income in the second quarter. The company's net income in the three months ending June 30 was NT$3 billion (US$88 million), compared with NT$2.3 billion in the year-earlier period. First-half net income rose to NT$7.3 billion, or NT$3.28 a share, from NT$5.7 billion, or NT$2.83, a year earlier.
■ NT dollar closes stronger
The New Taiwan dollar Tuesday turned strong against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.026 to close at NT$34.053 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$409 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