DIAMONDS
Futures exchange opens
The world’s first diamond futures exchange yesterday began trading in India, enabling companies in the largest producer of the cut and polished gems to better hedge price risks. “Indian manufacturers most require this type of financial product,” Indian Commodity Exchange Ltd managing director Sanjit Prasad said. India carries the price risk of holding huge inventories of cut and polished and rough diamonds, he said. The exchange, backed by companies, including Reliance Capital Ltd and MMTC Ltd, will start trading in 1 carat per US dollar contracts and will eventually add 50-cent and 30-cent contracts, he said.
ELECTRONICS
Samsung to invest in China
Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s biggest maker of memory chips, is to invest US$7 billion in a Chinese semiconductor plant to meet growing demand for the NAND flash memory used in smartphones and other devices. The spending will take place over a three-year period and be focused on its plant in Xian, the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in a statement yesterday. Samsung’s strength in memory chips has driven the company’s earnings to a record in the most recent quarter and helped it become more profitable than Apple Inc. NAND is used in everything from smartphones to connected appliances, as well as memory cards and flash drives. Samsung had about 41 percent of the NAND market in the March quarter, more than double the 18 percent of Toshiba Corp, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from IDC.
MEDIA
CBS agrees to buy Ten
CBS Corp agreed to buy struggling Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings Ltd, gaining an overseas platform for its video-on-demand service and squeezing out a potential bid by News Corp cochairman Lachlan Murdoch. The deal saves Ten Network from collapse, after the New York-based media giant pledged immediate financial support to keep it running. The most-watched US network enters a crowded market for streaming services in Australia, where it would face competition from Netflix Inc and several local platforms. Ten had crumbled under the cost of buying programs from the U.S. as advertising revenue plunged. The Sydney-based broadcaster was valued at just A$59 million (US$47 million) before its stock was suspended from trading in June.
BANKING
Corrupt bankers face death
A former banking magnate and 50 others yesterday went on trial in Vietnam over a multimillion-dollar fraud at a major private bank, as the communist nation cracks down on corruption in the sector. Authorities have vowed to clean up an industry plagued by favoritism and dodgy loans — part of a broader drive against corruption in the country. In the latest trial, the former chairman of Ocean Bank, Ha Van Tham, is accused of illegally approving loans worth US$23 million in 2012, ultimately leading to the bank’s demise and stripping him of his status as one of the country’s richest men. Tham and 50 other bankers and businesspeople, most of whom worked at Ocean Bank, face various charges related to the illegal loan in the 20-day trial that opened yesterday. Some face the death penalty, according to the lengthy indictment. The trial involves a record 50 defense lawyers and more than 700 witnesses, and is the second time the accused have appeared after a March trial was postponed for further investigation.
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],”