TAIEX falls on Pegatron news
The TAIEX fell back yesterday from a session earlier amid renewed concerns over corporate earnings after Pegatron Corp (和碩), one of Taiwan’s leading contract notebook computer makers, reported disappointing second quarter results, dealers said.
However, select market heavyweights, in particular smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電), staged a technical rebound to prevent the index from falling further as investors took advantage of their relatively low valuations after a recent slump, they said.
Pegatron closed down 7 percent, the maximum daily decline, at NT$37.00, while HTC gained 4.79 percent to close at NT$262.50.
The weighted index closed down 27.64 points, or 0.37 percent, at 7,477.53, after moving between 7,454.85 and 7,494.36, on turnover of NT$78.29 billion (US$2.61 billion).
Foxconn increases salaries
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), which pledged to improve pay and conditions on its assembly lines, raised salaries by more than 16 percent at a plant making Apple Inc iPhones and halved the probation period for new workers.
Monthly salaries for entry-level employees at the factory in Zhengzhou were raised starting on Aug. 1 to 1,800 yuan (US$283) from 1,550 yuan, the Taipei-based company said in a statement yesterday. Probation, after which workers get a higher base salary, was cut to three months from six months, it said.
Base-salary increases will range from 250 yuan per month to 350 yuan per month, depending on the worker’s tenure and position within the company, and don’t take overtime into account, Foxconn said.
Another 200 yuan per month will be paid to production workers during the peak month of August to November, it said.
Taipei competitiveness rises
Taipei ranked 36th among 45 global cities evaluated in an international financial center competitiveness index, according to a report jointly released on Thursday by China’s Xinhua News Agency and S&P Dow Jones Indices. Taipei was ranked 40th last year and 41st in 2010. Among the 11 Asian cities evaluated, Taipei placed 10th, followed by Japan’s Osaka.
The index evaluated cities in five indicators — industrial support, service, general environment, financial market, and growth and development.
Taipei received lower rankings in the last two indicators compared with last year. In the growth and development indicator, Taipei dropped from 20th place last year to 27th this year.
The top 10 cities on the index, which debuted in 2010, are New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich and Chicago.
New chairman for Inotera
Memorychip maker Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) said yesterday that its president Charles Kau (高啟全) would replace Jih Lien (連日昌) as new chairman, effective immediately.
Lien will continue to sit on the company’s board after resigning from the chairmanship, Inotera said in a statement. Inoteral also said executive vice president Scott Meikle would serve as president, effective Sept. 1, to take charge of the company’s daily operation.
NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, declining NT$0.042 to close at NT$30.002 after the central bank intervened late in the session to reverse early losses suffered by the greenback, dealers said.
The closing rate showed the central bank’s determination to keep the US dollar above the NT$30.00 mark in a bid to boost Taiwan’s exports, they said.
Turnover totaled US$403 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