TAIEX closes lower
The TAIEX closed down 0.44 percent yesterday as selling focused on select high-tech heavyweights amid lingering concerns over global demand because of signs of a slowing world economy, dealers said.
The index fell 35.92 points to 8,166.62 on turnover of NT$120.49 billion (US$3.82 billion).
The market opened down 0.25 percent on Wall Street’s overnight fall and selling continued amid fears that more disappointing US economic data will follow the latest worse-than-expected unemployment claims, dealers said.
A total of 2,620 stocks closed down and 1,117 up, with 283 remaining unchanged.
New energy tariffs mulled
The government plans to announce next year’s feed-in tariffs for power generated by renewable energy sources on Dec. 15, Bureau of Energy Deputy Director-General Wang Yunn-ming (王運銘) said at a press briefing yesterday.
The tariffs are the wholesale prices that state-run utility Taiwan Power Co (台電) pays generators. The government in December last year set the tariffs for electricity generated by solar panels and wind turbines for this year at levels higher than those for power from fossil fuels to spur production of renewable energy.
The tariffs are a minimum of NT$11.12 per kilowatt hour for photovoltaic solar panels and NT$2.38 for wind farms, compared with an average cost of NT$2.06 per kilowatt hour from fossil fuels, the bureau said.
Cracker resumes operations
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) resumed operations at its No. 5 naphtha cracker in Kaohsiung on Thursday.
The company expected output at the cracker to “return to normal” yesterday, vice president Paul Chen (陳綠蔚) said by telephone. The plant was shut on Sept. 19 when Typhoon Fanapi struck Taiwan.
The No. 5 cracker processes naphtha into ethylene, a material used to make plastics, chemicals and fabrics.
Chinese delegation to arrive
A 30-member delegation from China’s state-owned companies and large enterprises plans to arrive in Taiwan today for a six-day visit, a Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) official said yesterday.
TAITRA Deputy Secretary-General Huang Wen-jung (黃文榮) said the delegation would be led by Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Chen Jian (陳健).
Members will include Wang Liaoping (王遼平), chairman for the Association of Economy and Trade Across the Taiwan Strait, and Wang Zheng (王征), deputy chief of the Department of Economy under the Taiwan Affairs Office.
Wahaha in biotech talks
Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co (娃哈哈) is currently engaged in talks with a Taiwanese company on the possibility of working together in the biotechnology business, Zong Qinghou (宗慶后), chairman of the company, said in Taipei yesterday.
He declined to name the Taiwanese company.
President plans joint ventures
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) yesterday announced plans to form two joint ventures with Japan’s Sato Restaurant Systems Co to expand its restaurant operations in Taiwan and China.
The Taiwanese venture is capitalized at NT$60 million (US$1.9 million) with President Chain holding 81 percent stake and Sato the rest, according to a statement.
NT dollar ends week lower
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, closing down NT$0.02 at NT$31.620.
Turnover totaled US$849 million during the trading session.
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