Six state-run companies reported a total of NT$19.874 billion (US$611 million) in losses so far this year due to serious losses incurred by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) resulting from higher international oil prices in the first half of the year, statistics released by the government yesterday showed.
Last month's pre-tax profits for the six state-run companies under the Ministry of Economic Affairs -- including Taipower, CPC, Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖), China Shipbuilding Corp (
As CPC did not raise petroleum prices in line with the surge in global oil prices, it suffered serious losses in the first half of the year, the tallies showed.
However, after July international oil prices began to slide and in September CPC implemented a floating price mechanism which allowed it to determine its gasoline prices in accordance with changes in international oil prices -- all of which were factors behind the company turning its earlier losses into profits in the last few months.
The statistics showed that CPC's pre-tax profits for last month amounted to NT$2.26 billion. For the first 11 months of the year, its losses were NT$22.31 billion.
Meanwhile, Taipower's losses last month amounted to NT$694 million, while its total losses for the first 11 months of this year reached NT$3.23 billion. Taisugar's pre-tax profits last month were NT$1.24 billion, while its losses for the first 11 months hit NT$3.63 billion.
Taiwan Water's pre-tax profits last month were NT$94 million, while its profits for the first 11 months reached NT$809 million. China Shipbuilding's pre-tax profits for last month totalled NT$126 million, while its profits for the first 11 months amounted to NT$1.1 billion. The AIDC registered profits amounting to NT$2 million for last month, while its profits for the first 11 months of the year totalled NT$142 million.
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],”
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
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