■ ProMOS inks Hynix pact
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), which became the nation's second largest memory-chip maker in the first quarter, said it has signed an agreement with South Korea's Hynix Semiconduc-tor Inc to cooperate in technology development. The companies will work together to develop technology to make chips with gaps between transistors that are as small as 0.07 microns, ProMOS said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. ProMOS earlier said it is making chips with 0.12 micron technology. Chipmakers can cut costs by shrinking the size of their semiconductors and fitting more on a single silicon wafer. ProMOS needed a partner after its parent, Infineon Technologies AG of Germany, canceled a pact to provide technology to the Taiwan company. Hynix, the world's second largest memory-chip maker, has 771 billion won (US$670 million) in debt coming due this year.
■ E.Sun sells shares overseas
E.Sun Financial Holdings Co (玉山金控), which took over the failed Kaohsiung Business Bank (高雄企銀) in May, said it sold overseas US$98.6 million of shares held by its banking arm. The Taipei-based financial group sold 170 million shares in the form of global depositary receipts, it said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. One GDR is equal to 25 shares. The selling price of US$0.58 per share (NT$19.63), represents a discount of 3.8 percent over the stock's Sept. 24 closing price of NT$20.40, Morgan Stanley said.
■ Angkor Wat charters start
Far East Air Transport Corp (遠東航空) opened its Kaohsiung-Ang-kor Wat charter service yesterday, carrying 148 passengers aboard a Boeing-757 for the maiden flight. To serve residents in the south of the country, Far East Air Transport has cooperated with a travel agency to open the charter service. Far East Air Transport officials said the service from Kaohsiung to Angkor Wat will operate every four days. Flights between Taipei and Angkor Wat will also be once every four days starting next month.
■ EU extends herbicide tariffs
The EU will extend tariffs on a herbicide from China, Taiwan and Malaysia for five years to protect producers in the EU including Monsanto Co and Syngenta AG from cheaper imports. The EU will also cut the ``anti-dumping'' duty on glyphosate, used to remove weeds before crop planting, to 29.9 percent from 48 percent as it targets exporters including China's Zhejiang Xinan Chemical Industrial Group Co Ltd The EU will exempt Taiwan's Sinon Corp (興農) and Malaysia's Crop Protection (M) Sdn Bhd from the measures.
■ Securities backed by bonds
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人 壽) and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) are ready to issue securities backed by NT$900 billion (US$26 billion) of bonds, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing unidentified government officials. The Financial Supervisory Commission recently decided to expand the securitization business by allowing products backed by rated bonds to help companies raise funds, the paper said, citing unidentified commission officials. The government previously allowed securities to be backed only by mortgages, auto loans and credit-card debt, the paper said.
■ NT dollar trades lower
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.017 to close at NT$33.998 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$646 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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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