Chunghwa profit slightly up
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest phone operator, increased its second-quarter profit by 0.7 percent as more people used its high-speed Internet services.
Net income climbed to NT$12.6 billion (US$414 million) from NT$12.51 billion a year earlier. The figures were derived by subtracting first-quarter data from first-half numbers reported by the Taipei-based company yesterday.
First-half profit was NT$23.3 billion, the company said, without citing comparative figures. Chunghwa Telecom reported first-half profit of NT$24.60 billion last year.
TSMC sales up 25.4 percent
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday its unconsolidated sales in the six months to last month totaled NT$170.8 billion, up 25.4 percent from a year ago.
Last month, its sales rose 12.9 percent year-on-year to NT$28.5 billion, the world’s largest contract microchip maker said in a statement.
Consolidated sales in the three months to last month came in at NT$88.14 billion, in line with its April guidance of NT$87 billion to NT$89 billion.
Mingtai finalizes incorporation
After three years of merger work, Mingtai Insurance Co (明台產險) completed its incorporation of corporate identity with parent Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, vowing to protect policyholders’ assets.
But the insurer expects a slower growth this year, amid global economic slowdown, company executives said.
The company’s vice president, James Yeh (葉聰煌), said that sales of its auto insurance saw a 4 percent year-on-year decline in the first five months this year after auto sales declined by nearly 23 percent at the same time and auto maintenance cost went up by 5 percent.
Sales of fire insurance declined almost 2 percent, another vice president, Jerro Cheng (鄭振榮), said, adding that consumers are tighter in finances.
Mingtai, however, aimed to see NT$10.2 billion in sales this year, slightly down from last year’s 10.7 billion, after reporting NT$5.2 billion in first-half revenues.
Tseng appointed vice minister
The Ministry of Finance announced yesterday it had tapped Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) official William Tseng (曾銘宗) as vice finance minister, whose mandate begins today.
Tseng, 49, is currently head of the FSC Financial Examination Bureau. With a master’s degree in public policy from National Chung Hsing University, Tseng also served as deputy chief of the FSC Banking Bureau, FSC secretary-general and president of the state-run Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行).
He replaces Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和).
Energy use climbs
The nation’s energy consumption climbed 4.2 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 10.1 million kiloliters of oil, or about 2 million barrels a day, the Bureau of Energy said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The growth was the slowest since the 3.5 percent increase in November.
“The lower demand for electricity should be related to the economic conditions,” said Clint Chou (周義岳), a spokesman for Taiwan Power Co (台電), the nation’s only electricity retailer. “Sales to industrial and commercial users slid.”
Energy use in the first five months rose 6.1 percent to the equivalent of 47.9 million kiloliters of oil, the bureau said.
NT drops against greenback
The NT dollar continued dropping against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, edging down NT$0.019 to close at NT$30.418. A total of US$931 million changed hands during the day’s trading.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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