Unemployment on the rise
The unemployment rate came in at 3.94 percent last month, up from 3.80 percent in January, largely on the termination of temporary worker contracts after the Lunar New Year holiday, the government said yesterday.
Last month's jobless rate was also up from 3.78 percent during the same month a year earlier, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, last month's unemployment rate came in at 3.95 percent, unchanged from the previous month but up from 3.88 percent a year earlier, it said.
Last month, 424,000 people were jobless, 13,000 higher from a month earlier.
In the first two months of the year, unemployment averaged 3.87 percent, up from 3.79 percent in the year-earlier period, it said.
Grand Hotel plan on hold
Minister of Transportation and Communications Tsau Duei (蔡堆) told the legislature yesterday that the Grand Hotel (圓山飯店) would not be incorporated before May 20 when the new administration takes office.
Tsai said that he had been a government official for 40 years and was aware of what a caretaker government can or cannot do.
The hotel's incorporation is part of its privatization plan, which, however, triggered a controversy as a transfer of power may alter its privatization policy and execution.
The minister, in addition, said that any personnel changes have been frozen before the presidential inauguration in May.
Rebar prices hit new high
Domestic rebar prices rose to a new high yesterday, with Feng Hsin Iron and Steel Co (豐興鋼鐵), one of the country's main rebar makers, raising its wholesale rebar price by NT$800 (US$26.50) per tonne to NT$28,300 per tonne.
The leading rebar maker also increased its wholesale price for H-shaped steel girders by NT$400 per tonne to NT$28,600 per tonne and increased its offer for steel scrap by NT$400 per tonne to NT$15,700 per tonne.
Rebar wholesalers said Feng Hsin's new rebar price was still below prices on the domestic market, which have already risen to between NT$2,8500 and NT$29,000 per tonne.
Feng Hsin said it made the adjustments to reflect its increased costs, pointing out that the Japanese scrap steel price has risen to US$530 per tonne, while the domestic steel billet price has jumped to NT$26,000 per tonne.
Toyota may build new plant
Japan's largest automaker Toyota Motor Corp, which has seen strong growth in recent years, is studying building a fifth engine factory in Japan, a company official said yesterday.
"It is one of our options," Toyota spokesman Hideaki Honma said.
He was referring to a weekend report by the Nikkei Shimbun that said Toyota is planning to build its fifth engine factory in Japan by around 2010 in Miyagi Prefecture.
"We are constantly examining what is best for production, but nothing concrete has been decided yet," Honma said.
The Nikkei said the plant would manufacture some 200,000 engines a year for Toyota subcompact cars -- a rapidly growing market both at home and abroad at a time of high oil prices.
The cost is estimated to be ¥20 billion to ¥30 billion (US$200 million to US$300 million), it said.
The plant would boost competitiveness as Toyota factories in northern Japan currently use engines shipped from the company's base in central Japan.
Toyota is widely expected to become the world's top-selling automaker this year, replacing General Motors, as the Japanese company benefits from interest in its eco-friendly cars.
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