TAIEX falls on US joblessness
Taiwan’s benchmark index suffered a setback yesterday after investors saw Wall Street fall overnight on an increase in US jobless benefit claims, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 41.38 points, or 0.46 percent, to 8,977.23 points, after moving between 8,954.81 and 9,018.40, on turnover of NT$126.69 billion (US$4.42 billion).
NT$100bn in CDs auctioned off
The central bank sold NT$100 billion in 364-day certificates of deposit (CD) at an average interest rate of 0.975 percent at an auction yesterday, it said in a statement.
The sale attracted bids for 2.9 times the amount of securities on offer, the central bank said. The monetary authority last sold similar-maturity certificates on April 8 at an interest rate of 0.935 percent. That offer garnered a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.73 times.
Next TV to enhance Web portal
Next TV (壹電視), one of Taiwan’s new entrants into the Internet TV industry, is gearing up to launch games and Internet shopping services to add appeal to its current TV service.
The Internet TV portal, which belongs to Next Media Ltd (壹傳媒), aims to grab a “large” slice of Taiwan’s market share by the end of the year, a company executive said on Thursday.
Next TV currently boasts more than 1,000 titles in its offerings and started to charge for some programs since last month. Other income sources include commercial sponsorships, the executive said.
Launched late last year through a set-top-box giveaway promotion, the Internet TV service is competing with Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) industry leader MOD.
E Ink sales reach NT$2.5bn
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s biggest e-paper display supplier, yesterday posted sales of NT$2.5 billion for last month, up 45 percent year-on-year.
Total sales for the first four months were NT$12.6 billion, a rise of 87 percent from last year, it said in a statement.
E Ink, which produces e-papers for Amazon’s Kindle, said greater momentum from Europe and Russia this year would offset the slow growth in the US, which is currently dominated by Apple Inc’s iPads.
VIS’ sales drop 4%
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (VIS, 世界先進), a maker of driver ICs for LCD panels, yesterday announced net sales of NT$1.3 billion for last month, representing a 4 percent decrease from the same period last year.
From January to last month, accumulated net sales totaled NT$5.3 billion, showing an increase of 7.4 percent from last year.
VIS spokesperson D.L. Tseng (曾棟樑) said in a statement that because of the change in product mix and unfavorable currency exchange rate, net sales last month decreased about 3.5 percent month-on-month.
China Steel profit increases
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, posted a pretax profit of NT$3.76 billion last month, up 7.1 percent from the previous month, the Kaohsiung-based company said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday.
Revenue was NT$21.08 billion last month, up 1.9 percent from March, the company said.
NT dollar drops by 0.5%
The New Taiwan dollar declined the most in 10 weeks on suspected intervention by the central bank, according to two traders who declined to be identified.
The NT dollar weakened 0.5 percent today to close at NT$28.778 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. That was the biggest one-day decline since Feb. 24.
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],”