■ Bank fined for security lapses
The Financial Supervisory Commission on Thursday fined Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) NT$2 million (US$61,500) for the bank's failure to enforce internal security controls, the commission announced yesterday. The bank was penalized after an employee at its branch in Tai-ping (太平), Taichung County, stole NT$16 million from automatic teller machines (ATMs) during the Lunar New Year holiday. The culprit is still at large. The commission said that the bank had failed in several areas, including accurate control of the ATM codes and security monitoring systems, constituting a breach of Article 45-1 of the Banking Law (銀行法), which regulates banks' obligation to maintain proper internal controls.
■ Toll firm sues lawmaker
Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (遠通電收) yesterday filed a lawsuit against People First Party Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄), accusing the lawmaker of libel and damaging the company's credibility, the company said in a statement. Liu on Wednesday said that licensing for the company's infrared system may have been faked, as the document bore the seal of a German company, while the system had actually been created by an Austrian firm. Far Eastern Electronic, contractor for the nation's first highway electronic toll collection system, said that the High Administrative Court had found the document to be in accordance with the relevant regulations.
■ Sharp to buy Quanta panels
Sharp Corp will buy panels for TVs from Quanta Display Inc (廣輝電子) to meet rising demand before the World Cup soccer tournament and to maintain its lead as the world's largest liquid-crystal-display (LCD) television maker. Sharp will buy Quanta panels starting this month for 26-inch and 32-inch televisions sold outside of Japan, said Hiroshi Takenami, a spokesman based in Tokyo. Sharp lost market share to Sony Corp in the global LCD television market in the October-to-December quarter, as it failed to make enough television sets, a situation which Sharp president Katsuhiko Machida called the company's "biggest regret of 2005." Sharp also signed an agreement last month with Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) to share some LCD patents, and may buy LCD displays for smaller TVs and computer monitors from the Taiwanese manufacturer.
■ Chi Mei secures loans
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) has signed agreements with 30 banks for seven-year syndicated loans worth a total of NT$60 billion (US$1.85 billion), the company said yesterday. The funding will be used to build 7.5-generation production lines for liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels and color filters, a company statement said. Chi Mei, the world's fourth-biggest flat-panel maker, plans capital expenditure for this year of about NT$100 billion (US$3.08 billion). The company delivered 5.6 million television panels last year, which came in better than its original projection of 5.5 million. Chi Mei president Ho Jau-yang (何昭陽) said last month that he expected shipments of all panels to grow 55 percent to 38 million panels this year, including combined shipments of 28 million computer-monitor panels.
■ Fund outflows cap forex gains
The New Taiwan dollar turned strong against its US counterpart yesterday, but its gains were capped by foreign fund outflows, dealers said. The local currency rose NT$0.007 to close at NT$32.523 on the Taipei foreign exchange market, on turnover of US$767 million.
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],”