■INVESTMENT
FSC unveils exposure
Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday that Taiwanese financial institutions had a combined NT$33.78 billion in investment linked to government agencies and companies in Greece, Spain and Portugal, amid default fears about these countries. Of that total, domestic insurers held the largest exposure at NT$19.52 billion, followed by NT$10.6 billion by banks and NT$3.66 billion by investment trust companies, the commission said in a statement. By countries, Spain obtained the largest investment from Taiwanese financial institutions at NT$29.1 billion. It was followed by Greece at NT$3.38 billion and NT$1.3 billion for Portugal, the commission said.
■BOURSE
TAIEX closes flat
Taiwanese shares closed flat yesterday on continuing concerns over debt problems in Europe, dealers said. The TAIEX index fell 4.96 points or 0.07 percent to 7,212.87 on turnover of NT$80.96 billion (US$2.53 billion). The market opened yesterday for a special session to make up for the Lunar New Year holidays.
■FOREX
NT dollar gains strength
The New Taiwan dollar traded near the strongest level in three weeks, closing up NT$0.003 to NT$32.184 against the US dollar, Taipei Forex Inc said. “The bias for [the] Taiwan dollar to strengthen hasn’t changed,” said Tommy Huang, a fixed-income securities trader at Taiwan International Securities Corp (金鼎證券).
■INVESTMENT
Fubon invests in Spain
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) invested 270 million euro (US$369 million) in Spanish government bonds, its parent Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) holds 5 million euros of Spanish government bonds, the Taipei-based company said in a filing to the stock exchange. Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), meanwhile, said its banking unit has NT$1.22 billion exposure to Spanish, Greek and Portuguese bonds.
■ELECTRONICS
Innolux accelerates tie-up
Innolux Display Corp (群創光電) brought forward the date of a planned merger with Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) and TPO Displays Corp (統寶光電) to March 18 from April 1, Innolux said in an exchange filing Saturday. The companies said in late January they expected the merger to complete on Apr. 1.
■ELECTRONICS
Samsung invests in Slovakia
South Korean giant Samsung Electronics said on Friday it would invest 100 million euros in its plant in Galanta, western Slovakia in the years to come. “We plan to boost the production of LED [light-emitting diode] TV screens and start producing 3D TV screens in 2010,” the company said in a press release. By the end of October, Samsung will add 200 new jobs to the current 3,000 and retrain some 700 employees for the new production, it said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Prius accidents confirmed
The Japanese government has confirmed five new accidents involving Toyota Motor’s Prius hybrids and will urge the troubled car giant to investigate the cases, a newspaper reported yesterday. The transport ministry has received some 80 complaints this month about malfunctions in the brake system of the latest model of the flagship Prius, the Tokyo Shimbun reported without quoting sources.
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],”