Power demand soars
Electricity consumption climbed to a record high yesterday for the second time this year as rising temperatures increased the use of air conditioners.
Power demand hit 32,830 megawatts at 1:41pm, the state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said in an e-mailed statement.
That surpassed the previous record of 32,660 megawatts set on July 9. Temperatures in Taipei reached 36.4oC yesterday, compared with the average high of 34.1oC for July, the Central Weather Bureau said.
Reserve margin, or spare capacity over peak demand, fell to 6.9 percent yesterday, according to Clint Chou (周義岳), a public relations officer at Taipower.
That was less than half of the government's target of 16 percent.
FTC okays Dopod purchase
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday approved High Tech Computer Corp's (HTC, 宏達電) application to buy mobile phone brand Dopod International Corp (多普達).
HTC, the world's biggest maker of handsets running on Microsoft Corp's operating system, said it would Dopod's Asia operations -- excluding China -- in a deal worth US$14.5 million in May.
The commission said in a statement that the mobile phone market has seen fierce competition from numerous domestic and foreign brands.
Nokia and Motorola were the two best-selling brands in the country last year.
"As the two parties in the merger deal do not command high market shares, the commission believes the deal will not create a monopoly effect or impair competition," the FTC statement said and so the merger application was approved in line with Article 12-1 of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法).
Ho Tung seeks Sinopec fab
Taipei-based Ho Tung Chemical Corp (和桐化學) said yesterday that it was in talks with Chinese partner Sinopec Group (中國石化) to buy a factory of China's second-biggest oil producer before its wholly owned holding company goes public in Hong Kong.
The holding company is headquartered in British Virgin Islands (BVI).
"We plan to buy a fabrication from Sinopec. But we are not in a rush as we can wait for a better price," Ho Tung chairman Preston Chen (陳武雄) said yesterday.
The chemical maker plans to have its BVI-based holding firm subsidiary, Bao Tze, make its initial public offering in Hong Kong after the factory deal is reached, Chen said.
He did not give further details of capitalization or a timeframe.
The firm has to raise money overseas to bypass the government's restriction on China-bound investment that caps companies investments at 40 percent of their net worth, Chen said.
Ho Tung invested 60 percent of a petrochemical joint venture with Sinopec seven to eight years ago in China.
The venture generated sales of NT$4.8 billion last year.
Business in China contributed US$570 million to Ho Tung, whose consolidated sales amounting to NT$38.9 billion (US$1.2 billion) last year.
"Our business in China grows very fast," Chen said.
CMC to set up solar cell firm
The board of CMC Magnetics Corp (中環), the world's second-largest maker of recordable compact discs (CD-Rs), yesterday approved a proposal to set up a solar cell affiliate, Sunwell Technology Corp (富陽光電), and tap into the fast-growing green energy industry.
The new solar cell maker will have NT$700 million in capital and was scheduled to start mass production some time next year, CMC said.
Sunwell's plant will be located in Taoyuan County, it said.
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],”