TAIEX down 0.49%
The TAIEX closed down in quiet trade yesterday as uncertainty loomed over US spending cuts and general elections in Italy, offsetting positive sentiment from the electronics sector, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 39.21 points, or 0.49 percent, to 7947.68.
With uncertainty over market conditions, trading activity remained light throughout the session. Volume was 3.3 billion shares, compared with the 4.3 billion shares traded on Wednesday, when the index broke the 8,000 point mark.
Turnvoer reached NT$72.38 billion (US$2.44 billion) yesterday.
28-nanometer HPM to be used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said US handset chip supplier Qualcomm Inc’s wholly owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies Inc, will be the first company to produce working silicon on its 28-nanometer high performance mobile (HPM) process technology. Qualcomm is one of biggest clients of TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker.
TSMC’s 28-nanometer HPM is the first production process that can support 2GHz+ application processors with low power consumption. The process is suited for tablets and high-end smartphone applications.
Fire disrupts Internet service
Chief Telecom Inc (是方電訊), an Internet service provider, yesterday said several hundred of its customers, mostly corporate clients, were affected by a fire at a data center in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) that disrupted power and caused unstable Internet access.
The company expected to resume normal operations at midnight yesterday after investigators from the fire department completed a thorough inspection.
Chief Telecom is a subsidiary of the nation’s biggest telecoms operator, Chunghwa Telecom Inc (中華電信).
Textile output down 9%
The total output of the nation’s textile industry last year decreased to NT$455 billion, down 9 percent from NT$500 billion of a year ago, according to Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI, 紡織所).
Output of synthetic fibers last year dropped 11.6 percent to NT$144 billion last year from NT$162.9 billion a year ago, which was the most significant drop. Garment output declined 8.9 percent to NT$23 billion for last year from NT$25.24 billion in the previous year. TTRI said the decline last year was caused by the gloomy global economic condition and competition from emerging markets.
Lee Sush-der helms TWSE
Former Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) yesterday took over the chairmanship of Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE, 台灣證交所), pledging to make local bourses more vigorous, transparent and accountable.
Lee filled the vacancy left by Schive Chi (薛琦), who now serves as minister without portfolio following the recent Cabinet reshuffle.
Lee, 61, has a master’s degree in business management and is known for implementing a special sales levy in June 2011 to cool the housing property market.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar weakened 0.2 percent, or NT$0.044, to NT$29.702 to the US dollar, according to prices from Taipei Forex Inc. It has lost 1.9 percent in the past three months, the second-worst performer in Asia after the yen.
Turnover was US$885 million.
“The Taiwan dollar will continue to weaken in line with the yen’s decline,” Taipei-based Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) foreign-exchange trader Tarsicio Tong (湯健揚) said. “The pace of depreciation should be steady, as it’s countered by stock inflows.”
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],”