Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車) and Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和) said last week they would hike prices on their new models today because of rising raw material costs and fluctuating exchange rates.
According to Luxgen Motor, one of the auto manufacturing units of Yulon Group (裕隆集團), the prices of the models in its multi-purpose vehicle series, Luxgen7 MVP, and the sport utility vehicle series, Luxgen7 SUV, would be raised by NT$10,000 (US$338), while the price of the -recreational vehicle model, Luxgen7 CEO, would be raised by NT$30,000 to NT$1.68 million.
Luxgen Motor said the price hikes were largely a response to the cost of Japan-made components, such as transmission systems, since the Japanese yen has appreciated significantly against the US dollar.
In addition, prices of certain precious metals used in auto production, including palladium and rhodium, have also risen sharply, the company said.
Ford Lio Ho, a Taiwanese -subsidiary of the US-based Ford Motor Co, said in a statement on Friday that the prices of the mid-sized Focus passenger car would increase by NT$10,000, and the Fiesta compact car by NT$20,000, while Econovan trucks would now cost an extra NT$8,000.
Other domestic car makers for Japan’s Nissan Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co have also announced price increases to reflect the rising cost of raw materials and the stronger value of the yen against the greenback.
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