TRADE
Cross-strait talks to resume
The 12th round of negotiations on cross-strait trade in goods agreement is to take place at the Grand Hotel (圓山飯店) in Taipei from Saturday through Monday, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The Taiwanese delegation is to be led by Foreign Trade Bureau Director-General Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮) and Industrial Development Bureau Director-General Wu Ming-ji (吳明機), while Beijing’s delegation is to be led by Sun Tong (孫彤), head of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, the ministry said. The negotiations are to focus on discussing the details of lowering tariffs for each category of goods, the ministry said. Both Taipei and Beijing wish to complete the negotiations of the goods trade pact before the end of the year, the ministry said.
VIDEO GAMES
Cayenne reports loss
Video game company Cayenne Entertainment Technology Co (紅心辣椒) yesterday reported a net loss of NT$130.96 million (US$3.97 million) for last quarter, a significant drop from last year’s net income of NT$7.39 million. On a quarterly basis, the company’s net loss expanded from the second quarter’s net loss of NT$62.86 million, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Losses per share were NT$4.76, compared with last year’s earnings per share of NT$0.28 and the prior quarter’s losses per share of NT$2.26. In the first 10 months, the company’s revenues totaled NT$398.43 million, plummeting 45.58 percent from last year’s NT$732.17 million.
RETAIL
Slowdown hits Grand Ocean
Grand Ocean Retail Group Ltd (大洋百貨集團), which operates 16 department stores in Chinese second-tier and third-tier cities, yesterday posted a net loss of NT$490.67 million, or loss per share of NT$2.48, for last quarter, dragged down by China’s slowing economy. The figures are a serious decline from the net income of NT$76.21 in the same period last year and NT$226.74 million in the prior quarter. The company’s shares plummeted by the 10 percent daily limit to NT$31.25 in Taipei trading yesterday, following the firm’s release of its financial results for last quarter. The firm’s consolidated sales grew 0.05 percent annually to NT$6.02 billion in the first 10 months.
AUTOMAKERS
Electric vehicle sales surge
Global electric vehicle shipments totaled 330,000 units in the first three quarters of this year, rising 31 percent from a year earlier, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. The strong growth was mainly driven by subsidies in China and European nations, with China becoming the largest electric vehicle market in the world due to government policies, TrendForce’s automative electronics analyst Eric Chang (張仙平) said. The growth is expected to extend to next year, with global annual shipments jumping 55.55 percent to 700,000 units from this year’s estimate of 450,000 units, Chang said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Hon Hai expanding logistics
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is to invest 337 million yuan (US$52.9 million) in a Chinese logistics company in a bid to expand its logistics management in China, the firm said in a filing yesterday. The company, which assembles Apple Inc’s iPhone models and Xiaomi Inc’s (小米) handsets, also said it plans to invest US$30 million to set up a circuit board subsidiary in Guizhou in China to extend its reach in the circuit board industry.
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