■ Petroleum
Blast shuts naphtha cracker
Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) shut down its No. 3 naphtha cracker after a leak from a methanator reactor caused an explosion during an attempt to restart the plant, an official said yesterday. Damage caused by the explosion late on Friday at the 230,000-tonne-per-year plant will likely take about month to repair, the official said, although newspapers reported the plant could be out of action for longer. "It happened as we were restarting the plant. The input valve for the reactor broke off and hydrogen leaked out," an official said. "We are still evaluating, but it should be back on line within about a month," he said. The cracker, located in Kaohsiung, had been brought off-line at the end of May because of weak profit margins and reduced buying from local customers. No one was injured in the explosion, the official said.
■ Mobile phones
Singaporeans addicted
Singaporeans have become so addicted to their cellphones that 60 percent of those queried even use them while sitting on the toilet, a survey revealed last Sunday. The Sunday Times poll on cellphone usage and habits found users would rather lose their purse or identity card than their cellphone. The 150 people queried between 14 and 40 affirmed that the gadget has, in less than 10 years, become an integral part of their lives. Six out of 10 told the newspaper they continue talking even when nature calls although the person on the other end can hear the flushing and other awkward noises. "What's the big deal? It's not as if the other party can smell your stink," businesswoman Wileen Chang, 35, was quoted as saying. Fifty-six percent of the young use their phones to flirt, sending SMS messages to those they fancy. Eighteen percent find it expedient for breaking up.
■ File-sharing
Swedish ban takes effect
Unless Swedes suddenly have changed their habits, about one in 10 became a criminal overnight on Friday when a ban on downloading copyrighted material from the Internet took effect. High-tech savvy Swedes are among the world's most prolific file-sharers of movies, music and games. Authorities say the new law -- which follows an EU directive -- is part of an effort to crack down on Internet piracy. But many industry experts say the normally law-abiding Swedes have grown so lax about copyright infringement that any regulation is likely to be useless. Industry groups estimate that about 10 percent of Sweden's 9 million residents freely swap music, games and movies on their computers, making the Scandinavian country one of the world's biggest copyright violators.
■ Automakers
Yulon-GM aims for top five
Yulon-GM Motor Co (裕隆通用) aims to be among Taiwan's top five auto sellers by 2009, and the venture will introduce four to five new Buick cars in Taiwan in the next four years, chairman Kenneth Yan (嚴凱泰) said on Friday at Yulon-GM's formation ceremony. The first Buick model will be rolled out in the second half of next year. General Motors Corp and Yulon Motor Co said on Jan. 10 that they will invest NT$2 billion (US$63 million) to form a venture to assemble Buick sedans in Taiwan. Detroit-based General Motors, the world's largest automaker, owns 49 percent of the venture. Yulon Motor, the nation's second-biggest carmaker, owns the remaining 51 percent, companies said on Jan 10.
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