ENERGY
CPC cuts LNG, LPG prices
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday announced price cuts for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) this month. Effective today, prices are to drop by NT$2.9 per kilogram for household LPG and NT$1.6 per liter for LPG used in cars, CPC said. Average prices for LNG are to fall by 5.43 percent from last month, with the price of a 20kg household gas cylinder decreasing by NT$58. The price reductions translate into savings of between NT$17.7 and NT$26.55 for households that consume between 30m3 and 45m3 LNG per month, CDC said.
MACROECONOMICS
Morgan Stanley cuts outlook
Morgan Stanley yesterday cut its GDP growth forecasts for Taiwan this year and next year to 1 percent and 1.7 percent respectively, citing the country’s worsening exports and a slowdown in domestic consumption, compared with its previous estimates of 3.7 percent growth this year and 4 percent for next year. Morgan Stanley also lowered its TAIEX target this year to 8,300 points from 9,000 to reflect the economy’s weakness, it said in a client note.
STEEL
CSC, PT Artha ink MOU
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with PT Artha Metal Sinergi (AMS), an iron and steelmaker in Indonesia, to form a joint venture to tap into the Southeast Asian nation’s growing steel market. The two companies might also collaborate in other business fields, CSC said in a statement. AMS is part of the Artha Graha Network group of companies involved in real estate, banking, telecommunications and media businesses. Yesterday’s agreement was signed in Jakarta.
SOLAR CELLS
Solartech sales surge
Solar cell manufacturer Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽科) yesterday reported revenue of NT$1.06 billion (US$32.4 billion) for last month, up 53.96 percent from a year earlier and 21.27 percent from July. Sales last month were the highest since July 2011, company data showed. For the first eight months of the year, revenue totaled NT$6.14 billion, down 7.09 percent from the same period last year.
SOLAR CELLS
Motech to set up China unit
Motech Industries Inc (茂迪), the nation’s biggest solar cell manufacturer, yesterday said it had appointed vice president Fred Yeh (葉正賢) to serve as the firm’s chief operating officer, as the company plans to establish a new subsidiary in China to expand its production capacity. The company plans to invest 211 million yuan (US$33.07 million) in the new unit in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, its second production site in China. Motech also has a plant in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province.
FINANCE
Yuanta income drops
Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) on Monday reported that its net income for last quarter declined 13.22 percent sequentially to NT$3.48 billion, or NT$0.33 per share, from NT$4.01 billion in the previous quarter. Net income in the first half of the year reached NT$7.59 billion, or NT$0.77 per share, down 36.75 percent from a year ago. The company yesterday said that its brokerage unit, Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券), has launched a mobile market order app that is compatible with Apple Watch.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained