RUBBER
Nankang raises prices
Nankang Rubber Tire Co (南港輪胎), a major tire factory in Taiwan, said on Friday that it will hike the price of its products by 6 percent to 8 percent next month because of higher raw material costs. It will be the third time this year that the Taipei-based company raises its prices. The price hikes will take effect from Dec. 1, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The price of natural rubber has soared by 25 percent since the start of the year as poor weather in Southeast Asia has affected rubber supplies. The price of synthetic rubber has also jumped this year, rising more than 14 percent because of higher rising oil prices.
SPORTING GOODS
Li Ning prepares expansion
Li Ning Co (李寧), China’s homegrown sports brand, aims to trim inefficient outlets while adding a net 600 stores next year, as it competes with global brands expanding into lower-tier Chinese cities. Li Ning aims to operate a network of 8,500 stores next year and its 7,900 stores target for this year is achievable, a company spokesperson said. Adidas AG, the world’s second-largest sporting goods maker after Nike Inc, has planned to open more than 2,500 stores in smaller Chinese cities as the companies tap into rising incomes in those areas.
FASHION
Prosecutors seek D&G trial
Italian prosecutors on Friday requested the trial of famous fashion house Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) for alleged tax fraud of about 1 billion euros (US$1.4 billion), ANSA news agency reported. The request came from Milan prosecutor Laura Pedio, it said. Reports last month said investigators had completed an inquiry into founders Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, as well as five other people. Il Sole 24 Ore business daily reported earlier the company had failed to declare 840 million euros in revenues. The unpaid taxes amount to 420 million euros, one report said.
INTERNET
Amazon allows e-book gifts
Amazon.com Inc has begun allowing customers to give its Kindle e-books to others. Before, customers could only give gift certificates to cover the cost of an e-book. To receive a Kindle e-book gift, the recipient only needs an e-mail address, not necessarily a Kindle e-reader. Although the e-reader starts at US$139 for a version that can wirelessly download content over Wi-Fi, Amazon also offers a number of free applications that can be used to read Kindle books on gadgets such as laptops, tablet computers and smart phones.
ELECTRONICS
Analysts anticipate thin iPad
Apple Inc may introduce a thinner iPad in the first half of next year with features such as a camera for video-calling and chips made by Qualcomm Inc that let it work on global wireless networks, analysts say. Production may start as early as January, with an introduction to the public by February or March, said Mike Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in Toronto. The device will feature Qualcomm chips that allow a Web connection on both GSM and CDMA networks, the dominant radio standards used in mobile phones, said Brian Blair of Wedge Partners, who said he expects an April debut. The announcement’s timing would put the iPad on an annual cycle of introductions similar to those of iPhones and iPods.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day