The nation's energy consumption fell 1.3 percent from a year earlier in February as industrial output slowed during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Taiwan burned the equivalent of 7.91 million kiloliters (49.8 million barrels) of oil in February, with industrial companies including manufacturers and construction companies accounting for 59 percent of that consumption, the Bureau of Energy said on its Web site yesterday.
Industrial production in Taiwan, Asia's sixth-largest economy, fell 13 percent in February from a year ago, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on March 23. There were 15 working days in February this year, compared with 20 a year earlier, as the Lunar New Year holiday began on Feb. 7 compared with Jan. 21 last year.
The nation used 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in February, 1.3 percent less than the same month last year, the bureau said.
Taiwan bought 98 percent of its energy needs overseas, the bureau said. The country imported 5.23 million kiloliters of crude oil in February, down 3.1 percent from a year earlier.
The country imported 476 million cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in February, up 0.7 percent, the bureau said.
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