US lowers Motech tariff
The US Department of Commerce has cut the import tariff on Motech Industries Inc’s (茂迪) solar cells to 20.86 percent from the 44.18 percent originally proposed, the firm said in a statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange before the market opened.
The downward revision makes the levy on Motech the lowest among Taiwanese solar cell makers, which the US subjects to an anti-dumping tax of between 27.59 and 35.89 percent. The new rate meets the expectations Motech voiced last week.
Motech shares rallied 6.97 percent to close at NT$37.6 yesterday in Taipei trading.
SPIL to buy ProMOS factory
Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s third-largest chip packager and tester, yesterday said it has inked an agreement with ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) to buy 12-inch chip manufacturing equipment and facilities for NT$6.4 billion (US$213 million).
ProMOS said it plans to use the proceeds of the sale of its factory in Greater Taichung to fund restructuring projects.
SPIL has raised its capital spending for a second time this year to a record high of NT$18 billion to cope with ballooning customer demand.
Yahoo to expand native ads
Yahoo Inc on Monday said its Taiwanese native advertising service will likely be expanded, since the new marketing concept has attracted many brand-name customers, such as Swedish furniture retailer IKEA Group, Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd and South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co, by helping them cut costs.
Native advertising aims to let publishers and advertisers deliver paid ads that are conducive to a Web page’s content, assimilated into its design and consistent with the platform’s behavior so the viewer feels the ad belongs there.
Phone shipments to grow
Worldwide shipments of smartphones are to continue growing in the third quarter of the year, spurred by the release of Chinese handsets and Apple Inc’s new iPhone later this year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday.
TrendForce forecast in a note that 322 million smartphones would be shipped in the third quarter, up 13 percent from the second quarter, pushing whole-year shipments to 1.2 billion units — an annual rise of 29.2 percent.
The market researcher predicted Apple would sell 75 million new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones this year.
HTC reveals Butterfly 2
HTC Corp (宏達電) unveiled the newest smartphone in its popular Butterfly series in Tokyo yesterday, saying the device is to go on sale in Taiwan and other Asian markets next month.
The HTC Butterfly 2 is to be available in Taiwan on Sept. 2 through Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), as well as through major wireless carriers and retailers across Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, HTC said in a statement.
It did not reveal the phone’s expected retail price.
FAT adds service to Meixian
Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (FAT, 遠東航空) on Monday launched a regular non-stop route between Greater Taichung and Meixian in southeast China that will operate every Monday.
Starting on Sept. 22, the airline will also offer a service between Greater Taichung and Hefei, also in eastern China, that will likewise operate on Mondays.
In the first six months of the year, Taichung Airport handled 1.05 million travelers, compared with 806,000 in the same period last year, government statistics show.
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],”