MINING
BHP eyes record production
Global mining giant BHP Billiton yesterday said it expected record iron ore production in the current fiscal year after output in the second half of last year rose by 23 percent. The world’s largest miner said iron ore production for the six months to Dec. 31 was 80.6 million tonnes, up 23 percent on the previous corresponding period. In the three months to the end of last month, BHP produced 41.1 million tonnes of iron ore, an increase of 4 percent from the third quarter. BHP said consistently strong operating performance, dual tracking of its rail infrastructure and additional ship loading capacity at Port Hedland all contributed to the record performance.
COMPUTERS
ASML earnings fall 12%
ASML Holding NV, a key equipment supplier to computer chipmakers Intel and Samsung, says its earnings fell 12 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. Net profit was 317 million euros (US$405 million), down from 362 million euros in the same period a year ago. Revenues fell 20 percent to 1.21 billion euros. ASML makes “litho-graphy systems,” used to trace out the circuitry of semiconductors. The company said yesterday that although orders slowed in the fourth quarter, they had strengthened in the first quarter of this year on demand for logic and flash memory chips.
COPYRIGHT
Apple sues Samsung again
Apple Inc filed another suit in Germany, seeking to ban sales of Samsung Electronics Co’s smartphones, including the Galaxy S Plus and the S II, extending the global legal dispute between the two companies. The action targeting 10 smartphone models was filed in the Dusseldorf Regional Court and is based on Apple’s design rights, court spokesman Peter Schuetz said on Tuesday. Apple also started a separate suit against five Samsung tablet computers related to a September ruling banning the Galaxy 10.1, he said. Samsung spokesman Nam Ki-yung said the company has no immediate comment to make.
ELECTRONICS
Samsung doesn’t want RIM
Samsung Electronics Co said it was not interested in buying Research In Motion Ltd (RIM), denying a report that fueled an 8 percent surge in the BlackBerry maker’s shares. Samsung has “never” considered buying the Canadian mobile phone maker, and there has been no contact between the two companies, company spokesman James Chung said by telephone. Samsung is also not interested in using RIM’s software through a licensing deal, he said. RIM shares advanced to US$17.47 at the close of trading in New York on Tuesday. RIM spokesperson Tenille Kennedy declined to comment on the report.
INTERNET
Koobface hackers identified
Online security researchers claimed on Tuesday to have identified the members of a Russian gang of cybercriminals behind the Koobface computer virus, which has attacked Facebook and other sites. Meanwhile, Facebook said that its security team had helped knock out a computer server which controlled a Koobface “botnet” of malware--infected personal computers. According to Jan Droemer, an independent computer security researcher, and Dirk Kollberg of security firm SophosLabs, the five members of the Koobface gang live in St Petersburg, Russia. In a blog post, Sophos said evidence and the identities of the five Koobface suspects had been handed over to law enforcement.
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],”