■ TRADE
HKTDC to open local branch
The Ministry of Economic Affairs approved an application by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC, 香港貿易發展局) to set up a branch in Taiwan, a government statement said on Friday. HKTDC officially applied to set up its branch in Taiwan on Aug. 8, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會), the HKTDC’s Taiwanese counterpart, said in the statement. Custom statistics show that bilateral trade between Taiwan and Hong Kong reached US$39.8 billion last year, accounting for 8.54 percent of Taiwan’s trade.
■ CONSTRUCTION
Israel agrees to pay wages
Ending a tense standoff, an Israeli company said on Friday it had agreed to pay wages to Chinese laborers who were working on a luxury resort project that was suddenly halted by the global financial crisis. Ashtrom Group Ltd said it would pay the 60 workers who had prevented employees of the Israeli company from leaving the work site on the tiny island of West Caicos, said Ygal Yancovitz, a Miami-based regional manager of the Israeli company. Yancovitz denied the Chinese laborers had taken Ashtrom’s employees hostage, as some had described.
■ FOOD
Fonterra could drop Sanlu
Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd could sell its stake in a Chinese dairy venture at the center of the milk scandal that killed four babies and sickened 53,000 children. Fonterra, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, said talks were under way on a third-party acquisition of Sanlu Group Co (三鹿). The Auckland, New Zealand-based group owns 43 percent of Sanlu. “Discussions are continuing around a number of facets of Sanlu’s future,” Fonterra chief executive officer Andrew Ferrier said in a statement. “These include the possibility of Sanlu being acquired by a third party.” Feihe Dairy, a subsidiary of American Dairy Inc, was invited by the Chinese government yesterday to a meeting to discuss the future of Sanlu, Xinhua news agency said.
■ MOTORCYCLES
Production cuts announced
Japanese motorcycle makers are cutting production as demand in the US and Europe shrinks because of the global economic crisis, a report said yesterday. Top motorcycle maker Honda Motor Co intends to slash production by 10 percent for the year to March from 12 months earlier to 400,000 bikes, the Nikkei Shimbun said. Second-ranked Yamaha Motor Co has lowered its production forecasts by 20 percent for 250cc or larger bikes at its main factory in Iwata in central Japan to 350,000 to 360,000 units. Suzuki Motor Corp will reduce domestic output of motorcycles and buggy carts for the year to March by 7 percent from a year earlier to 509,000 units, the daily reported.
■ ENERGY
Bolivia to buy Ashmore shares
The Bolivian government announced late on Friday an agreement to buy all shares owned by the British company Ashmore Energy International in the local gas pipeline company Transredes. The deal followed President Evo Morales’ decision in June to nationalize the pipeline, which had led Ashmore to file for international arbitration in a Swedish court. A local media report said Ashmore wanted US$500 million in compensation for its share in the pipeline. The total value of the deal, under which Ashmore’s 25 percent stake in Transredes would be transferred to Bolivia’s national oil and gas company YPFB, has not been disclosed.
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],”