TAIEX closes down 0.84%
Taiwanese shares closed down 0.84 percent yesterday as fears of a capital outflow hit large-cap financial and technology stocks, dealers said.
A recent steep decline in the value of the local currency stoked fears of an exodus of foreign investment from the market, dealers added.
The weighted index closed down 74.23 points at 8,792.39 on turnover of NT$131.53 billion (US$4.27 billion).
Decliners outnumbered advancers 1,568 to 773, with 322 stocks were unchanged. A total of 25 stocks closed limit-up, while 19 were limit-down.
For the week to May 9, the weighted index close down 171.24 points or 1.91 percent after a 0.18 percent increase a week earlier. Average daily turnover stood at US$NT142.84 billion, compared with NT$154.90 billion a week ago.
Yangming to expand fleet
Yangming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) plans to expand its fleet from the current 96 vessels to at least 125 by the year 2012, Yangming said yesterday.
“We have placed orders to build new ships and have signed lease contracts in order to expand and improve service, including launching new Far East-Europe/US routes,” a Yangming press officer said, asking not to be named.
Yangming, one of the world’s top container shipping lines, currently has 96 vessels — 87 container ships and nine bulk carriers.
Yangming has placed orders with CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船), to build 17 ships, mostly container vessels. Of these, 10 will be container ships, from 4,250-82,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit) and will be delivered this year and the rest delivered before 2012.
Group seeks Taiwan partners
China’s Xiamen International Airport Group Co (廈門國際航空港集團) said yesterday it was eyeing partnerships with Taiwan carriers amid hopes the two sides would soon establish regular weekly flights.
The airport, located in southeast China’s Fujian Province just across from Taiwan, is looking at various options, including transforming itself into an air cargo hub for flights to Taiwan, an executive told AFP.
It has not yet entered into concrete negotiations with air companies from Taiwan, said the executive, who declined to be named.
TSMC sales rise 6%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said it posted sales of NT$28.86 billion (US$937 million) last month, up 6.4 percent from NT$27.13 billion in March.
Compared with the same month a year earlier, April sales rose 25.0 percent, the world’s largest contract maker of computer chips said.
In the first four months of the year, sales totaled NT$116.34 billion, up 32.2 percent from a year earlier, TSMC said.
Shows attract 908 buyers
Taiwan’s jointly held machine tool and robot shows attracted a total of 908 overseas buyers and 11,329 local buyers respectively, representing 28.6 percent growth and 51.5 percent growth year-on-year, the events’ organizers, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), announced yesterday.
Featuring 940 booths occupied by 219 local manufacturers and 70 international companies, the two shows’ booth occupancy rate grew by 11 percent from a year earlier.
The council said Asian buyers represented the largest group of buyers, capturing 62.47 percent of the total number of overseas buyers, adding that European buyers ranked second place, representing 15.25 percent of the total turnout.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six