Taiwanese shares closed 1.06 percent higher yesterday on hopes for better cross-strait ties with China ahead of Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration as president today, dealers said.
Ma is expected to announce in his inaugural speech that more Chinese tourists would be allowed to visit Taiwan, China-bound investment restrictions would be eased and direct transport links with China would be begun in earnest, they said.
The weighted index closed up 97.79 points at 9,295.20, off the day’s low of 9,207.27, on turnover of NT$150.18 billion (US$4.91 billion).
China Airlines (華航), the nation’s largest carrier, rose to a three-week high as a planned trip to China by the chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) boosted hopes for an agreement on direct flights.
The carrier gained 2.5 percent to close at NT$16.75 yesterday, the highest since April 24. Smaller rival EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) jumped 4 percent to NT$18.30.
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) this month in Beijing. The meeting, the highest-level contact between the two former foes since the end of China’s civil war, may facilitate a resumption of cross-straits flights.
Taiwan may let carriers fly to China from four airports as early as July, the Economic Daily News said last Thursday, citing incoming minister of transportation and communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國).
Elsewhere, Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the world’s largest processor of plastics for pipes and imitation leather, expects reconstruction in the wake of China’s strongest earthquake in decades to boost consumption of its products.
Demand for construction material made from polyvinyl chloride should increase, company president Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) said by telephone yesterday.
The earthquake in southwestern China has leveled more than 4.7 million houses in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. Nan Ya Plastics has more than 30 plants in China producing goods including pipes and synthetic leather. The company also makes floor panels and window frames.
“Sales volume is expected to increase,” Wu said, declining to comment on product prices.
Nan Ya Plastics started as a plastics-product maker more than four decades ago and has expanded to manufacturing petrochemicals, polyester and electronics components such as optical disks and materials used to make printed circuit boards.
The company’s sales gained 21 percent from a year earlier to NT$20.1 billion last month, Nan Ya Plastics said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on May 7.
Meanwhile, shares of Taiwanese pulp makers climbed to seven-month highs in Taipei trading after a local news report said that they might raise prices next month.
Chung Hwa Pulp Corp (中華紙漿), the nation’s second-largest pulp maker, led gains by advancing 5.9 percent to close at NT$25.85 yesterday, the highest since Oct. 16 last year.
Taiwan Pulp & Paper Corp (台灣紙業), the sixth-largest, climbed to a five-year record of NT$18.70, up 6.6 percent, compared with a 1.1 percent gain on the benchmark TAIEX index.
Taiwanese paper pulp makers may increase prices by 5 percent next month in line with international pricing, with Chung Hwa Pulp and Taiwan Pulp & Paper to benefit the most, the Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing unidentified industry sources.
The seven-member TAIEX Pulp & Paper index gained 3.3 percent to 217.55 points, the highest level since July 25 last year.
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],”