ELECTRONICS
Delta stocks fall on issuance
Shares of Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the nation’s top power supply unit maker, plunged 7.6 percent yesterday after it announced a plan on Monday to issue up to 170.66 million new common shares to raise funds. Based on the firm’s closing price yesterday, Delta could raise about NT$26.96 billion (US$822.3 million) from the local bourse, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said, adding that the decline of Delta shares reflected the market’s concern over potential earnings dilution. Given that the company has about NT$60 billion cash on hand, Daiwa Capital Markets Inc said Delta might plan to use the fresh funds to engage in more mergers and acquisitions. However, Yuanta Securities said investors might doubt such a move, as there are no viable targets at the moment.
LIFE INSURERS
Cathay, China Life team up
Due to the growth of cross-strait travel, Cathay Life Insurance Co Ltd (國泰人壽) yesterday announced an agreement with China Life Insurance Co Ltd (中國人壽) to process travel insurance claims for policyholders traveling in Taiwan and China. Taiwanese policyholders traveling in China can have their insurance claims processed at nearly 3,000 branches of China Life and Cathay Lujiazui Life Insurance Co Ltd (陸家嘴國泰人壽), the first cross-strait insurance venture, which was formed in 2004, while Chinese travelers visiting Taiwan can have their claims processed by Cathay Life Insurance, the companies said.
TIRE MAKERS
Expansion nears completion
Nankang Rubber Tire Corp (南港輪胎) yesterday said it expects to complete a capacity expansion project at its Sinfong Township (新豐) plant in Hsinchu County by the end of this year to meet market demand. The expansion is to increase the daily output of passenger car tires at the plant to 18,000 from between 12,000 and 13,000 tires, the company told an investors’ conference in Taipei. The company said it also expects to finalize a land redevelopment project at its old factory site in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) at the end of the year, which is expected to be transformed into a residential and commercial complex covering 9,453 ping (31,249m2).
SEMICONDUCTORS
MIC forecasts revenue rise
The local semiconductor industry’s revenue is expected to grow by 2.2 percent to NT$2.2 trillion next year after it expanded by a weaker-than-expected 0.4 percent to NT$2.15 trillion this year, the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) forecast yesterday. In comparison, the global semiconductor industry is expected to grow total revenue by just 1 percent annually next year after rising 2.2 percent this year, the MIC said. Taiwan’s DRAM chipmakers are expected to see revenue decline by 13 percent to NT$23.25 billion this year from last year, the market researcher said.
REAL ESTATE
Taiwan Fertilizer leases plot
Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥), the nation’s largest fertilizer producer, yesterday signed agreements with CTBC Life Insurance Co (中信人壽) and Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) to sell the surface rights for plots of land in Taipei near Nangang Software Park’s (南港經貿園區) C3 parking lot. The insurers paid NT$15 billion for a 45-year surface rights lease. They plan to turn the 12,565 ping parcel into a business complex, which is to include office buildings, a shopping center and hotels, by 2019.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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