Foxconn stock rises after rating
Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康), the world's biggest contract manufacturer of mobile phones, rose the most in two months in Hong Kong trading after BNP Paribas SA raised the stock's rating, citing higher orders from Nokia Oyj.
Foxconn climbed 5.6 percent to HK$18.78 yesterday, its biggest one-day gain since Sept. 27. Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index rose 4.1 percent.
The Shenzhen, southern China-based company, a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), will increase deliveries of phones to Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, BNP Paraibas analyst Frederick Wong wrote in a report dated Nov. 23, without providing details.
He raised his rating on Foxconn shares to "buy" from "reduce."
Vietnam business looks good
Business prospects in Vietnam are viewed as particularly attractive to local and foreign firms in Singapore, a survey said yesterday.
The respondents are also generally more optimistic about prospects in the city-state than overseas, said the Business Times-Sim University poll.
China took the top position overall, cited by 25.8 percent of the respondents asked to name a country with the best business prospects over the next six months.
Vietnam captured the second-most mentions overall, among large, local and foreign firms and also in the commerce, transport, communications and financial services sectors.
Malaysia emerged third overall among large and local firms and those in construction, transport and communication.
DHL announces Asian project
DHL Worldwide Express Inc announced yesterday plans to invest US$175 million on a new North Asia cargo hub at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport.
Plans for the 55,000m2 hub were formally set out at a signing ceremony with the Shanghai Airport Authority -- part of a plan launched by the city in 2003 to become China's biggest cargo handler.
The airport at Pudong is due to begin operations at expanded facilities early next year, a major step toward nearly doubling its cargo handling capacity from 2.2 million tonnes last year to 4.2 million tonnes a year by 2010, city officials say.
Hong Kong is now greater China's biggest cargo hub, with throughput of 3.6 million tonnes last year. Shanghai ranks 6th in the world, up from 17th in 2003.
The cargo hub raises DHL's total investment in the Asia-Pacific region to US$2.2 billion over the past few years.
"China remains the most important player in the global logistics chain in North Asia," said Dan McHugh, CEO of DHL Express for Asia-Pacific.
Asian banks mull currency union
Asian central banks could be preparing for an eventual currency union in the region after adopting similar trade-weighted currency baskets to protect their export competitiveness, Deutsche Bank said yesterday in a statement.
"The concept of an Asian Monetary Union has been validated by a number of economic studies and is getting serious attention among central banks and exporter groups," said Martin Hohensee, Head of Fixed Income and Credit Research in Asia at Deutsche Bank.
While obstacles to a formal union remain, the underlying economic rationale seems to be affecting central bank behavior in Asia, which creates opportunities similar to those presented in the early stages of Euro convergence, Hohensee said.
New Taiwan dollar gains on US
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday gained NT$0.004 to close at NT$32.320 against the greenback on turnover of US$766 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],”