■ Tsann Kuen probe deepens
Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co (燦坤實業) Chairman Wu Tsan-kun (吳燦坤) is barred from leaving Taiwan amid a probe into suspected illegal sale of shares of a US unit, a Chinese-language business daily reported Thursday, without saying where it obtained the information. Wu is suspected of breaking the nation's Securities and Exchange Law (證交法) and committing other violations, the paper said. He was released on NT$5 million (US$150,000) bail to help Tsann Kuen maintain operations, the paper said. Tsann Kuen Vice President Tien Chu-ying (田竹英) said her company is "quietly waiting for the law enforcement's investigation to proceed," according to the paper. The company, Taiwan's largest electronics retailer by market value, said last month it's under investigation for matters related to the swap of shares two years ago in a US unit. The company denied allegations of embezzlement.
■ Taiwan creating brand names
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said Thursday that Taiwan is gradually moving from customizing on an OEM basis to creating its own brand names. The top 10 Taiwanese brandnames created a production value of NT$140 billion this year, up 15.58 percent from NT$121.1 billion last year, Yu said at the opening of a one-day conference in Taipei of the Marketing Communication Executives International (MCEI) on Asian brand names in the world. The production value of the top three Taiwanese brands -- Trend Micro (趨勢), Asustek (華碩) and Acer -- increased to NT$80.2 billion, or a growth of 18.38 percent, he added.
■ New mall to open Nov. 19
The Miramar Entertainment Park (美麗華百樂園), a shopping mall integrated with entertainment facilities, is slated to open doors for business in Taipei's Dazhi district on Nov. 19, the company announced Thursday. The mall boasts the nation's first Ferris wheel atop the building, IMAX movie theater, theme restaurants and various luxury brands to compete in the already crowded market in the capital. Aside from discount sales, it also features a "shopping queen" activity on the inauguration day. Whoever spends the most on the first day will be awarded a 1.126-carat diamond ring with a market value of NT$613,000 (US$18,400).
■ Optoelectronics sees growth
Taiwan's optoelectronics industry posted a more than 40 percent annual growth rate in its output value for the first three quarters of this year, a research unit under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) reported Wednesday. The MOEA's Industrial Technology Information Services (ITIS) said that the industry's production value for the first nine months totaled NT$746.3 billion (US$22.3 billion), up by 44.9 percent over the previous year's record. The ITIS forecast that its production value for the whole of this year will amount to NT$1.135 trillion, a 38 percent increase compared to the 2003 level.
■ Investment plans up
A total of 241 investment venture plans were approved by the government in 2003, up by 24 from the 2002 number, according to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS). Investment capital worth NT$16.54 billion (US$493.4 million) was funneled into the domestic market, with a focus on the semiconductor and optoelectronics industries, which accounted for a combined 40 percent of the total investment value, DGBAS said.
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],”