■Alcohol
Taiwan beer eyes China
Taiwan’s state-owned beer maker will invest about US$30 million to open a brewery in Shanghai to produce its signature product “Taiwan Beer” this year, reports said yesterday. Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司) expects annual sales revenue in China to reach NT$1 billion (US$31 million), the Chinese-language United Daily News quoted chairman Duan Wei (韋伯韜) as saying. The plant will produce 50,000 tonnes of beer and cut the price of Taiwan Beer, currently two to three times more expensive than Chinese brands, to boost competitiveness, Wei said.
■Economic growth
The pain in Spain
The IMF on Friday lowered its growth forecast for the Spanish economy next year to 0.6 percent from its 0.9 percent forecast in April and warned that recovery “is likely to be weak and fragile.” “The particular challenges facing Spain will likely make the recovery slower and more fragile than in the euro area,” the IMF said in its latest report. The fund’s growth forecast for Spain for next year was lower than the 1.3 percent expansion predicted by the Spanish government.
■Internet
Facebook to delay IPO
Facebook Inc will probably put off its initial public offering until 2012, giving chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg more time to gain users and boost sales, three people familiar with the matter said. Facebook would benefit from another year of growth absent the added scrutiny that comes with a public listing, instead of holding an IPO next year as investors speculated, said the people, who asked not to be identified because Facebook does not discuss share-sale plans. However, Zuckerberg, who holds board control, could push for a stock sale at any time, they said.
■Gas
Interest in gas pipeline
An official with TransCanada Corp says the company has received “multiple bids” from “major industry players and others” interested in using a proposed natural gas pipeline to move fuel from Alaska’s North Slope to markets in North America. Tony Palmer, TransCanada’s vice president of Alaska development, said he was encouraged about the line’s prospects moving forward, provided that unspecified “key conditions” are met. TransCanada ended its 90-day process of seeking shipping commitments for the proposed line on Friday.
■Industry
Wages up in North Korea
South Korean firms operating in a Seoul-backed industrial estate in North Korea have accepted the North’s demand to raise workers’ wages by 5 percent, a spokesman said yesterday. An umbrella association representing around 120 businesses operating in the Kaesong industrial estate agreed to raise the monthly minimum wage to US$60.78 per month from US$57.88 from August 1 until July 31 next year, he said.
■Oil
Earnings up at oil majors
Chevron’s second-quarter earnings tripled on better refining margins and higher prices for oil and natural gas, the company said on Friday. Chevron Corp reported income of US$5.4 billion or US$2.70 per share, for the three months to June 30. That compares with US$1.7 billion or 87 cents per share in the same period last year. In the second quarter, Exxon Mobil Corp reported net income of US$7.56 billion, its best result since the last three months of 2008. Royal Dutch Shell Group boosted earnings by 15 percent and ConocoPhillips said profits nearly tripled.
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],”