TAIEX erases rebound
The nation’s benchmark index pulled back yesterday from a rebound in the previous session, as investors took cues from an overnight tumble on Wall Street amid fears that the debt crisis in the eurozone had returned to haunt market sentiment, dealers said.
Furthermore, a cut in the fourth-quarter sales forecast by Intel Corp, the world’s largest chipmaker, has raised concerns over the global PC sector’s profitability, dealers said. The US company is expecting that PC makers’ output would be affected by a hard-disk drive shortage, which resulted from the recent flooding in Thailand, they added.
The TAIEX closed down 52.73 points, or 0.76 percent, at 6,896.31, after moving between 6,850.88 and 6,919.68, on turnover of NT$60.41 billion (US$1.99 billion).
3D glasses test developed
Taiwan has developed equipment to test the quality of 3D glasses, which could eventually give the country’s manufacturers an edge in overseas markets, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The 3D eyewear testing equipment, developed by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院), could help launch an initiative for Taiwan to create an international 3D display standard, the ministry said.
Many countries are competing to establish such a standard, but if Taiwan emerges as the winner, its 3D display manufacturers would gain an advantage in international markets, according to the ministry.
Lai Yueh-yi (賴岳益), a researcher at the institute’s Center for Measurement Standards, said the newly developed testing equipment could provide coefficient data to manufacturers to help them improve the quality of their 3D products.
TCFHC stays put
The newly-established Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co (TCFHC, 合作金控) has no intention of expanding into the capital-leasing business because of a lack of experience, chairman Liu Teng-cheng (劉燈城) said yesterday.
Liu made the statement in the wake of domestic peers setting up capital-leasing firms in China to take advantage of higher interest rates there on capital equipment financing.
“We favor more conservative expansion after conducting an assessment on the issue,” Liu said.
The nation’s fourth-largest financial service provider by assets plans to organize investors’ meetings both in English and Mandarin in the second half of next year so investors can better understand its financial performance, Liu said.
Chinese buying group coming
A purchasing group of 233 Chinese businesses is scheduled to visit Taiwan today for talks with domestic suppliers, according to the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA).
Three-hundred and fifty local businesses are expected to participate in the talks, including Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖), Chi Mei Corp (奇美實業), Oceanic Beverages Co (大西洋飲料) and food supplier Hey-Song Corp (黑松), TAITRA said on Monday.
The Chinese buyers include Shanghai FamilyMart Co (上海全家便利商店), Nanpu Food Co (南浦食品) and Golden Eagle Retail Group (金鷹商貿集團), it said.
The buyers will be looking to purchase goods in the automobile component, textile, machinery, medical device, base chemical, and agricultural sectors, TAITRA said.
NT dollar drops on euro worries
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US currency yesterday, declining NT$0.03 to NT$30.260, as the local currency weakened to reflect a falling euro after three major ratings agencies expressed concern over the debt situation in the eurozone, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$703 million during the trading session.
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