CHIPMAKERS
DRAM chips sales up 13.4%
Global sales of DRAM chips grew 13.4 percent from a quarter earlier to US$14.13 billion last quarter, as a tight supply shortage boosted commodity DRAM prices by more than 30 percent and mobile DRAM prices by almost 10 percent, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Samsung Electronics Co took the top position after posting sales of US$6.32 billion in the quarter, followed by SK Hynix Inc’s US$4.05 billion in sales and Micron Technology Inc’s US$2.96 billion. TrendForce said that momentum is expected to continue and send product prices up another 10 percent this quarter.
LABOR
Furlough numbers down
The number of workers on unpaid leave in Taiwan in the first half of this month fell to a low of almost six years at a time when the nation’s economy is showing signs of improvement, the Ministry of Labor said on Tuesday. As of May 15, the number of workers who took unpaid leave fell from 184 at the end of last month to 102, the ministry said. The number of employers who implemented their unpaid leave programs also fell to a six-year low of four as of Tuesday, it said.
TRADE
‘Taiwan Desk’ in Dehli
The Ministry of Economic Affairs established a “Taiwan Desk” at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New Delhi on Thursday with a ceremony hosted by Representative to India James Tien (田中光) and Dushyant Thakor, deputy head of “Invest India” under India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Nearly 90 Taiwanese firms have set up branches in India and Taiwan’s foreign direct investment in India reached US$177 million last year, the TECO said. Bilateral trade between reached US$5.01 billion last year, the office said.
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