BANKING
Yuan deposits surge
The central bank said yesterday that 214.52 billion yuan (US$35.38 billion) had been deposited in the nation as of the end of last month, marking the highest level of yuan deposits in history. The deposits were up from 182.6 billion yuan recorded at the end of last year, central bank data showed. Local banks began their yuan business on Feb. 6 last year. At the end of last month, the outstanding balance of deposits totaled 165.82 billion yuan in the 66 domestic banking units, up from 138.22 billion yuan recorded the previous month, while those in the 57 offshore banking units totaled 48.7 billion yuan, up from 44.38 billion posted a month earlier, according to data provided by the central bank.
MANUFACTURING
Factory openings up: MOEA
The government recorded 5,181 factory registrations last year, an increase of 19.7 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday. Among them, 3,454 were officially approved, representing an annual decrease of 3.9 percent, while 1,727 factory operators obtained temporary licenses, up by 735 over the previous year, the ministry said. During the same period, 3,356 factories — an increase of 34 percent from 2012 — closed, leaving the net increase in the number of factories at 1,825, the ministry said. Changhua County recorded the highest net increase of factories, 564, followed by Greater Taichung, with a net increase of 455, it said.
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],”