TRANSPORTATION
Taipei Port to ship goods
Taipei Port International Logistics Ltd (台北港國際物流) yesterday inaugurated the nation’s first maritime express handling unit at the Port of Taipei, with the Natchan Rera (麗娜輪), the first Taiwanese high-speed passenger and cargo vessel, to ship the first batch of goods from Pingtan Port in China’s Fujian Province. As it takes only about three hours for maritime express operators to transport merchandise and get goods cleared through customs, the system might offer e-commerce operators another option for transporting goods across the Taiwan Strait. Six express consignment operators, including Taipei Port, have been approved to conduct business, with another maritime express handling unit to begin operations in July, Taipei Port said in a statement.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC plans mass production
To provide more sophisticated technology, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is planning to begin mass production of its 10 nanometer (nm) process next year, while the 7nm process is scheduled to enter production on a trial basis in 2018, according to the company’s annual report released yesterday. TSMC said in the report that the 16nm process is scheduled to go into commercial production in July after the technological requirements for the process were met at the end of last year. TSMC said global smartphone sales are expected to grow at a double-digit pace and the company could reap benefits from the trend.
TELECOMS
Chunghwa mulls 4G repricing
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) yesterday said the company would consider introducing 4G tier pricing next year, Chinese-language online news provider cnyes.com reported, citing company president Shih Mu-piao (石木標). Chunghwa could be the first telecom among its local peers to stop providing unlimited 4G data plans next year, Shih said. Chunghwa launched a short-term promotional plan with favorable pricing incentives to attract new 4G subscribers early last month. The company is targeting 400,000 4G subscribers by the end of this year with about 40 percent of the local 4G market.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Vanguard expects slowdown
IC foundry Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (VIS, 世界先進) yesterday said revenue for this quarter would drop by between 2.31 percent and 5.44 percent from last quarter, due to sluggish low-end market demand. “We expect revenue to be between NT$6.05 billion and NT$6.25 billion (US$196.73 and US$203.24) for this quarter,” the company said in a statement after posting first-quarter revenue of NT$6.398 billion, net income of NT$1.369 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of NT$0.83. Gross margin for this quarter would be between 28.5 percent and 31.5 percent, compared with 33 percent last quarter, the firm said.
MANUFACTURING
Pou Chen dividend approved
Footwear supplier Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業) yesterday said its board had approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.5 per share, after the company posted EPS of NT$2.93 last year. While last year’s EPS dropped from NT$3.62 in 2013, the proposed dividend payout of NT$1.5 was higher than the previous year’s NT$1 per share, increasing the payout ratio to 51.19 percent from 27.6 percent.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six