■ Petroleum
NYMEX opens Dubai trading
The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) on Friday announced it is setting up the Middle East's first petroleum futures exchange in Dubai. The first futures contracts to trade at the exchange, to be called the Dubai Mercantile Exchange, likely will be high-sulfur, or "sour" crude, and fuel oil, NYMEX said in a press release on Friday. The exchange is scheduled to open early next year. Specific financial terms weren't disclosed for the joint venture with the government of Dubai, but sources close to the deal have said the project would cost an estimated US$10 million in the next few years. Dubai will cover the bulk of the cash investment, they said, while NYMEX will mostly contribute the technology. NYMEX officials have also indicated an interest in offering metals futures, such as a gold contract, at the Dubai exchange. The deal fits into NYMEX's plan to expand its franchise globally and attract business from Asia.
■ Notebooks
Compal sees growth in Q3
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) forecast third- quarter shipments of its notebook computers will increase as much as 10 percent from 2.13 million units in the first quarter, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing company chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄). Compal is targeting shipments of 9.5 million notebooks this year with a gross margin of 5 percent each, the newspaper reported. Hsu also forecast the industry's shipments worldwide will increase 22 percent from last year to 58 million units, the newspaper reported. Compal's gross margin, or percentage of sales left after deducting production costs, dropped to 5.8 percent in the first quarter from 7.1 percent a year earlier.
■ Plasma TVs
Top three to double sales
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Hitachi Ltd and Pioneer Corp plan to more than double their global plasma television sales this fiscal year to meet rising demand, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. The top three plasma TV makers expect to sell 3.07 million plasma television sets worldwide, 2.4 times the amount last business year, the newspaper said without citing anyone. Matsushita, which plans to boost plasma TV sales by 2.8 times to about 2 million units this year, saw sales increase by 2.8 times in April and last month from a year earlier as prices cuts attracted customers, the paper said. The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association estimates global demand for plasma TVs to rise 59 percent to 3.7 million units this year, the newspaper 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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six