ELECTRONICS
Lite-On revenue falls
Lite-On Technology Group (光寶科技) yesterday reported revenue of NT$16.21 billion (US$520.8 million) for last month, falling 6 percent year-on-year and 24 percent from the previous month. The electronics parts maker attributed the contraction to fewer working days because of the Lunar New Year holiday. The company last month told reporters that its revenue this year is expected to expand by a single-digit percentage from last year, supported by growing demand for units used in high-end camera modules, cloud-computing servers and its LED business.
AIRLINES
CAL touts A-350 benefits
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) at Fiumicino Airport in Rome yesterday said at the inauguration of its Airbus A350 jet on the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport-Italy route that it hopes the aircraft it acquired last year will improve service quality and reduce costs. Celebrating the addition of the long-haul, medium capacity A350 to the route, CAL representative Hsiao Hsin-tseng (蕭炘增) said the introduction of the plane is a win-win for passengers and the carrier. CAL is the third airline to use the model to fly to rome, following Cathay Pacific Airways and Thai Airways, Hsiao said. CAL, which is to obtain a total of 14 A350s by the end of next year, the first of which was delivered in September last year, has already been using the jet on the Taoyuan-Amsterdam route.
TRANSPORTATION
Bus firms delay fare hikes
Long-haul bus operators have agreed to postpone until March 1 plans to increase fares after revised labor regulations created higher operating costs, the Directorate General of Highways (DGH) said yesterday. Several companies filed applications with the DGH to raise fares, citing higher overheads expected after the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) was amended in December last year. Although the DGH approved the applications, it asked the companies to put off implementing the fare hikes until after Lantern Festival on Saturday. UBus Co (統聯客運) on Monday announced that it plans to increase fares from Tuesday next week.
RESTAURANTS
Tai Tong sales improve
Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (瓦城泰統集團) yesterday posted sales of NT$408.5 million for last month, up 29.76 percent from the previous year. The company, which operates six restaurant chains, including Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰國料理), attributed the increase to seasonal demand during Lunar New Year holiday and the launch of its sixth cuisine brand, Rice Bar (時時香). Tai Tong expects sales growth momentum to be sustained throughout this year on the back of quick expansion of its outlets. The company is to open 25 outlets worldwide this year, it said in a statement yesterday.
BANKING
CTBC Financial profits rise
CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) yesterday reported that profits last month rose 115 percent from a year earlier to NT$4.84 billion, a record high for January. Earnings per share over the period were NT$0.25, the company said. The growth was primarily driven by increased income from fees and investment gains, as well as a surge in demand at its lottery unit during the Lunar New Year holiday and bad-debt write-backs at its Japan-based banking subsidiary, it said.
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