■SHIPPING
China opens ports to Taiwan
China approved five additional ports for direct shipping with Taiwan, bringing the total to 68, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing China’s transportation ministry. The addition of ports Tongling, Shidao, Laizhou, Taizhou Damaiyu and Ningbo-Zhoushan were announced yesterday at a meeting on cross-strait direct shipping in the southern city of Xiamen, Xinhua said. China agreed to waive business taxes and corporate income taxes for Taiwanese shippers on profit earned in China from direct shipping, Xinhua said. The exemption is effective from Dec. 15 of last year, it said.
■STOCKS
China’s IPO backlog mounts
China, whose stock market is the world’s third-best performer this year, has 300 to 400 companies waiting to hold initial public offerings, Citic Securities Co (中信證券) chairman Wang Dongming (王東明) said. That backlog will take two years to clear, Wang, who heads China’s biggest brokerage by market value, said yesterday at a forum in Shanghai. China hasn’t had an IPO since September. The nation’s securities regulator plans to set up a new system for pricing initial public offerings and may “soon” end a moratorium on IPOs, China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Fan Fuchun (范富春) said on March 6. Listings were halted “because the market needed a rest,” Fan said. “The decision on who to list, how to price the listing should be given to the investment bank, company and investors,” Wang said.
■STOCKS
Shanghai, Taipei in talks
The Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Taiwan Stock Exchange are in “detailed discussions” on cooperation, Shanghai bourse executive vice president James Liu (劉嘯東) said on Friday at a forum in the Chinese city. Implementation of the initiatives under discussion will depend on government approval, Liu said, without giving details. Taipei will host a conference on exchange-traded funds next week, Taiwan Stock Exchange Chairman Schive Chi (薛琦) said at the forum.
■REAL ESTATE
Report predicts HK rebound
Hong Kong home prices may rebound to levels seen in early September, before the global financial system imploded, according to a report yesterday by Centaline Property Agency Ltd (中原地產). “With sales transactions stabilizing at a normal level and investors preferring to buy fixed assets, we may see home prices back to those levels by year-end,” Wong Leung-sing (黃良昇), an associate director at Centaline, said in a phone interview. Four of the biggest mass housing estates Centaline tracks have already risen past prices posted in early September, the agency said.
■FINANCE
ADB criticizes Philippines
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday the Philippines has failed to follow a commitment to reduce the number of state-run corporations that have been bleeding government coffers dry. It said Manila sought ADB technical assistance in 2006 to improve the efficiency of government-owned or government-controlled corporations that perform socially oriented services such as maintaining food supply stability or provide basic services in areas including transport, housing and utilities. State enterprises have been “problematic” with “weak institutional and regulatory frameworks” and “most” have been bleeding red ink, the Manila-based ADB said.
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