LABOR
Demand up in Taiwan
Workforce demand in Taiwan is projected to increase by 40,768 people by July 31 from the April 30 level, representing a drop in growth compared with the same period of last year and of 2011, according to the results of a Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) survey released yesterday. The projected net growth for next month from the April level declined by 8,309 people, compared with a rise of 49,077 in the same period last year, the survey showed. Employers in the manufacturing sector expect to hire 24,400 more employees next month than they did in April, while those in the services sector expect to hire 16,300 more, according to the survey, which was conducted between April 22 and May 10.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Inotera profit rises again
DRAM chipmaker Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) on Monday posted its second monthly net profit on rising prices, boding well for the company to swing back to profit this quarter. Net proft was NT$1.06 billion (US$35.5 million), or NT$0.2 per share, last month, up from NT$1.125 billion, or NT$0.21 per share, in April, while revenue for last month grew 20.64 percent to NT$4.15 billion, the highest level since April 2010, the company’s stock exchange filing showed. Inotera chairman Charles Kau (高啟全) said in April that the second quarter would be “much better” than the first quarter in terms of chip price and profitability.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained