■ Exports hit new high
Exports rose faster than expected last month to a record high on strong demand for electronics goods from Hong Kong, China, the US and South Korea, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. Exports grew 15 percent to US$18.8 billion last month, higher than the average forecast of 8.9 percent in a Dow Jones Newswires survey of economists. The growth rate was also higher than March's growth rate of 7.1 percent. Export value surpassed the previous record of US$18.792 billion hit in October. Imports rose 5 percent from the same month last year to US$16.42 billion, the ministry said. That was in line with expectations and reversing March's 0.5 percent decline. The figures resulted in a trade surplus of US$2.4 billion.
■ Asustek HQ moves offshore
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) has chosen Singapore as the location for its new international headquarters, officials said in a newspaper report yesterday. The company, one of the world's largest manufacturers of PC motherboards, graphics cards and notebook computers, would centralize business functions in the city-state, the firm's first international base outside Taiwan, Benson Lin (林宗樑), president of Asustek Asia-Pacific, told the Business Times. Singapore will be a nerve centre for a large part of Asustek' global operations, serving countries in North and South-East Asia, Europe, the US and Africa. The company is also planning to set up its first overseas research and development center in the city-state in the near future, Lin said. Asustek plans to increase its Singapore headcount from 20 to 80 by the end of the year.
■ High Tech unveils new phone
High Tech Computer Corp (宏達電), the world's biggest maker of mobile phones operating on Microsoft Corp's system, yesterday unveiled its first clamshell phone in London. The latest smartphone is slated to hit the stores of European channel distributors next month, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Later this year, the company said it would also offer the model for its operator customers. Mobile carriers Vodafone and T-Mobile are two of High Tech's major clients in Europe.
■ Li Shin shares slide
Shares of Li Shin International Enterprise Corp (力信興業), a switch power supply maker, dropped by 2.86 percent to close at NT$32.25 yesterday, after Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) said it has worked with Chinese custom officials to inspect and detain products shipped by Lin Shin's subsidiary Logah Technology Corp (力銘科技) to China last Friday. Hon Hai made the announcement in a filing to Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. Hon Hai sued Logah for infringing its LCD-inverter related patents in Feburary and requested Hsinchu District Court enforce a provisional seizure of up to NT$180 million (US$5,7 million) worth of Logah's assets.
■ NT dollar gains ground
The NT dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, increasing NT$0.266 to close at NT$31.380. A total of US$1.24 billion changed hands. The NT dollar may climb further to NT$31.1 within the next month, said Sean Callow, a currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp in Singapore. The local currency will be boosted on speculation that overseas funds will add to their holdings of the local bourse as growth in the economy gathers pace.
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],”