China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday said it has invested in Tesla Inc’s local engine supplier, but denied media reports that it had improperly intervened in the Taiwanese supplier’s operation.
In October last year, China Steel invested an unspecified amount of capital for a 20 percent share in Tesla’s major engine supplier, Fukuta Electric and Machinery Co Ltd (富田電機). Through the investment, the Kaohsiung-based steelmaker secured two seats on the engine maker’s seven-seat board.
“China Steel supplies high-end steel to Fukuta Electric. It is the only steel product that has received certification from Tesla for its electric cars,” China Steel said in a company statement yesterday.
“The investment aims to help foster the nation’s electric car supply chain,” it said.
To bolster Fukuta Electric’s corporate governance and fend off growing competition, China Steel said it proposed adopting a better management mechanism to shore up the company’s fundamentals.
“All of those proposals were approved by the board, not only by some board directors,” the steelmaker said.
Its comment came after the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday that Fukuta Electric chairman Gordon Chang (張金峰) said that China Steel had intervened excessively in the company’s operations.
China Steel replaced Fukuta Electric’s chief financial officer and its accountant without discussing the changes beforehand with Chang, the report cited him as saying.
In addition, China Steel cut the payroll of Fukuta Electric employees and overhauled the company’s workflow, which affected employee morale, the report alleged.
Unlisted Fukuta Electric has been supplying electric engines to Tesla since 2007. Currently, the US electric car brand contributes about 30 percent of the Taiwanese firm’s total revenue.
Fukuta Electric also supplies engines to auto brands in Europe and Japan as well as Taiwan’s Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車).
The engine manufacturer invested NT$1 billion (US$30.6 million) in a new engine plant in central Taiwan in October last year to cope with rising demand from Tesla. The plant is expected to be completed in three years.
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],”