TECHNOLOGY
EU’s chips not impacted
Last month’s earthquake in Japan is having little impact on STMicroelectronics NV, Europe’s largest chipmaker, Corriere della Sera reported, citing an interview with STMicroelectronics chief executive Carlo Bozotti. The short-term impact is “minor,” although the situation in post-earthquake Japan is still uncertain, Milan, Italy-based Corriere cited Bozotti as saying. STM is keeping its first-quarter guidance despite seeing some risks for sales in the first and second quarters following the Japan quake, a company spokesman said on March 16.
AUTOMOBILES
Tesco to offers vehicles
Tesco PLC, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, said it would start selling cars on the Internet. TescoCars.com will supply direct to customers and offer after-sales support from more than 1,000 independent garages. “We are offering a wide choice of the most popular models, from small hatchbacks to executive saloons to -family-sized MPVs,’’ Andrew Higginson, head of Retailing Services at Tesco, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “By supplying directly to customers, there is no middle man, no expensive showroom and no salespeople on commission.”
ENERGY
Saudis to cut reliance on oil
Saudi Arabia, with 20 percent of world oil reserves, aims to develop renewable energy and nuclear power to cut by half the crude and natural gas it burns to generate electricity, a government official said. The country is seeking to develop a more sustainable mix of energy supply as growth in power demand is set to triple over the next two decades, Khalid Al Sulaiman, vice president for Renewable Energy at King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, said at a conference in Riyadh yesterday. Saudi Arabia’s energy mix is made up almost exclusively of fossil fuels now, Al Sulaiman said in a speech at the Saudi Solar Forum. Energy that’s not derived from fossil fuels such as oil and gas will make up more than half of the kingdom’s supply mix by 2030, he said. That mix will include solar and wind power, and nuclear plants, he said.
ENERGY
SK Energy to reduce prices
SK Energy, South Korea’s largest oil refiner, will cut prices this week following months of pressure from the government, which is battling to curb inflation, its parent company said yesterday. SK Innovation said prices of gasoline and diesel at 4,000 SK Energy garages would be cut by 100 won (US$0.92) per liter for three months from Thursday. “This really was not an easy decision for us to make, considering the losses to come,” SK Innovation said in a statement, adding that the move was to support government efforts to rein in inflation. South Korea relies entirely on imports for its oil needs, making it vulnerable to turbulence of the kind shaking up North Africa and the Middle East.
AGRICULTURE
Ivorian cocoa to plummet
Cocoa production in top grower and war-stricken Ivory Coast will likely decrease over the next two years, leaving the rest of the producing nations to pick up the slack for global demand, Macquarie Bank’s Kona Haque said on Saturday. “Right now there’s not a lot of incentive for farmers to tend to the midcrop [in Ivory Coast]. They probably don’t even have workers there,” Haque said, while speaking on a panel at a Cocoa Merchants’ Association of America conference in the Bahamas.
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],”