Share prices plunge
Share prices fell sharply yesterday, losing 1.64 percent after further losses on Wall Street overnight sparked a regional slide on sustained concerns over the outlook for inflation and interest rates, dealers said.
They said this, combined with prevailing political tensions made for a difficult day.
The TAIEX closed down 105.69 points at 6,337.21, on turnover of NT$77.71 billion (US$2.38 billion).
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電) fell NT$1.30 to NT$56.20, and peer United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) dropped NT$0.85 to NT$18.25.
MOF checking towel prices
The Ministry of Finance yesterday said it has sent representatives to check Chinese towel makers' prices before it finalizes antidumping investigations. The inspection efforts have been endorsed by the WTO and the representatives are scheduled to return home next Thursday.
The government started slapping provisional duties of between 107.3 percent and 237.7 percent on top of an existing tariff of 10.5 percent on Chinese towel imports on June 1.
This is the first antidumping action against Chinese imports since Taiwan acceded to the WTO in 2002.
With the assistance of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the finance ministry is allowed 110 days from June 1 to re-confirm its antidumping action before it has to announce its final anti-dumping duty rate, which means the final announcement is expected in late September or early October.
Q3 employment prospects good
The nation's employers forecast positive hiring intentions for the period July to September this year with 36 percent of the 1,239 companies interviewed expecting stronger staffing needs, according to a report released by Manpower Services (Taiwan) Co yesterday. In contrast, 13 percent reported a decrease in hiring activity in the third quarter and 30 percent expected no change.
This resulted in a "net employment outlook" figure -- which is calculated by subtracting the number of employers planning to reduce staffing levels from the number planning to hire staff -- of 23 percent, down by 8 percentage points from the second quarter.
Employers in the finance, insurance and real estate markets reported the largest decline (12 percentage points) in the outlook figure.
The company said it might be the result of consumer finance deflation, caused by rising consumer debts in credit and cash-advance card business that have prompted banking institutions to adopt a conservative approach in corporate expansion.
ITRI unveils super vacuumer
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) unveiled its new "super-quiet" robotic vacuum cleaner yesterday, which operates at a sound level of 56 decibels -- 10 decibels lower than existing models.
An ITRI official said the compact cleaner, which weighs about 3.5kg, can automatically clean the house in various movement patterns -- spiral, zigzag, random and against-the-wall.
If the cleaner detects low power conditions, it will switch to "charging mode" -- in which it will move along the walls only to find its charger. Once power is restored, it will restart the "cleaning mode," he said.
NT dollar falls again
The New Taiwan dollar traded lower against its US counterpart on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.117 to close at NT$32.660.
A total of US$1.129 billion changed hands during the day's trading.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained