Solar energy
Giga Solar reports sales rise
Giga Solar Materials Corp (碩禾電子), a photovoltaic (PV) conductive paste maker, on Thursday said sales rose 81.08 percent year-on-year to NT$627.02 million (US$20.7 million), despite recent headwinds such as price cuts by rival Dupont and silver powder shortages. While last month’s figure was just 1.91 percent higher than the previous month’s level, the cumulative sales for the first quarter totaled NT$1.99 billion, up 89.38 percent from a year earlier and 28.75 percent higher than the previous quarter, the company’s data showed.
Electronics
E Ink signs deal with BOE
Taiwan-based electronics-paper supplier E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技) on Wednesday said its South Korean subsidiary Hydis Technologies Co has signed a patent licensing agreement with China-based flat-panel supplier BOE Technology Group Co (京東方). Under the agreement, Hydis is to license its fringe field switching (FFS) technology to BOE. The FFS technology enables wider viewing angles on screens and has become a standard technology for tablet computers.
TRADE
Taiwan 24th in trade ease
Taiwan ranked 24th among 138 countries in the latest global survey on ease of trade, rising five notches from its previous listing two years ago, according to a report released on Tuesday by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Among the Asia-Pacific economies, Taiwan ranked sixth, behind Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Japan and Australia, in that order, the WEF Global Enabling Trade Report 2014 showed. The three top-ranked economies globally were Singapore, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.
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],”