TAIEX falls over euro woes
The TAIEX pulled back yesterday from a rally a day earlier amid renewed concerns over Europe’s debt problems after Spain’s 10-year bond yield hit its highest level since the launch of the euro in 1999, dealers said.
Many investors also stayed on the sidelines ahead of a two-day US Federal Reserve policymaking meeting set to open later yesterday, waiting to see whether the US central bank would further ease monetary policy to boost the economy, they said.
The weighted index edged down 8.37 points, or 0.11 percent, to close at 7,273.13, after moving between 7,239.42 and 7,288.98, on turnover of NT$58.08 billion (US$1.94 billion).
In trading yesterday, the paper and pulp sector suffered the heaviest losses among the eight major sectors of the market, finishing down 1.03 percent.
FPCC raises cash in bond sale
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday it had raised NT$10.5 billion (US$351.5 million) by selling bonds.
The company said in a stock exchange filing that it sold NT$6 billion worth of five-year debt at a yield of 1.35 percent and NT$4.5 billion in seven-year debt at a yield of 1.44 percent.
The company said it would use the proceeds to repay debt, the filing said.
Meanwhile, the company had plans yesterday to close its No. 1 naphtha cracker for maintenance, Lin Keh-yen (林克彥), a company spokesman, said by telephone. The No. 3 naphtha cracker was restarted last week, he said.
HTC teams with Chinese giants
Taiwanese smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) signed letters of intent yesterday with Chinese Web giants Tencent Inc (騰訊) and Sina Corp (新浪) to build greater awareness of its brand among hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet users.
HTC will partner with Tencent on an application store, video communications and security, while collaborating with Sina on account activation, cloud computing services and customized smartphones.
Tencent currently has 700 million users in China, while Sina has 400 million users, which covers more than 80 percent of China’s population of 1.35 billion, according to Terence Lam (林袓榮), vice president and head of product marketing at HTC’s China operations.
Last month, HTC climbed to third place in the market for smartphones over 1,500 Chinese yuan, trailing only South Korean giant Samsung Electronics Co and iPhone maker Apple Inc, Lam said.
Yang Ming wins shipping award
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) said on Monday it had been awarded the Best Intra-Asia Shipping Line title for this year by Cargonews Asia.
The Taiwanese shipper said the award is a result of its intensive efforts to penetrate the Asia shipping market and improve services through market expansion.
So far, Yang Ming Marine has assigned 35 vessels out of its fleet of 86 ships to serve 32 shipping routes in Asia, covering East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Australia.
NT drops on intervention
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.004 to close at NT$29.890 as the central bank intervened to reverse early losses suffered by the greenback, dealers said.
However, turnover remained thin as many traders stayed on the sidelines, watching closely how the debt crisis in the eurozone would evolve after the 10-year bond yield in Spain hit its highest level since the launch of the euro in 1999, they said.
Turnover totaled US$570 million during the trading session.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six