CREDIT
Fitch boosts Taiwan’s rating
Fitch Ratings Ltd yesterday upgraded Taiwan’s sovereign credit rating from “A+” to “AA-” and said its outlook for the nation’s credit ratings are stable. The “AA-” rating is the company’s fourth-highest grade. The international ratings agency also upgraded its long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings to “AA-” for Taiwan, while affirming its short-term currency issuer default ratings at “F1+,” the agency said in an e-mailed statement. Fitch said Taiwan’s fiscal profile has continued to steadily improve, despite the challenges presented by lower economic growth, with the general government balance showing a surplus of 0.1 percent of GDP last year, the first surplus in nearly two decades. Fitch expects the budget balance to remain stronger than official targets this year, driven by strong tax revenue collection and prudent expenditure management. For this year, Fitch said it forecast a budget deficit of 0.7 percent of GDP.
SEMICONDUCTORS
FTC extends merger review
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday said that it would extend its review of a planned industrial holding company formed by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) and Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) as the commission considers the deal’s potential effects on the industry and market competition. The commission said it would hold more meetings with related companies, industry representatives and government agencies before reaching a final decision by the end of this year. The commission on Oct. 4 received ASE’s application to establish the new holding company, which is to own 100 percent equity interests in ASE and SPIL, while both existing firms are to remain separate legal entities.
BICYCLES
Giant issues China recall
Giant Manufacturing Co Ltd (巨大機械), the nation’s largest bicycle maker, has issued a recall of 679,366 bicycles in China over a defect in the quick-release lever on the front wheel. The recall involves 49 models of bicycles, which were manufactured from August 2008 through September last year, the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said yesterday in a statement on its Web site. The statement said that affected bicycles are equipped with front disc brakes and a quick-release lever on the front wheel hub that opens far enough to contact the brake disc, which could cause the front wheel to come to a sudden stop or separate from the bicycle, posing a risk of injury to riders. Giant said no accident has been reported in China in association with the affected models, adding that the recall would have limited impact on its business.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Acer supplying VR theaters
PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) is supplying megascreen theater company IMAX Corp with virtual-reality (VR) headsets, which are to be installed in European movie theaters operated by Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group, with the first VR theater to open in Manchester, England, by the end of the year. The VR headsets were jointly developed by Acer and its partner Starbreeze AB, a Swedish games maker. Last month, Acer said it and Starbreeze had begun shipping their StarVR head-mounted displays to IMAX in preparation for the opening of the IMAX VR Center in Los Angeles later this year, with mass production of the devices to begin next year.
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],”