MANUFACTURING
Sector growth beats average
The overall revenue of listed companies in the manufacturing sector expanded by 5.3 percent annually to NT$14.6 trillion (US$485.5 billion) in the first eight months of this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Statistics said yesterday, citing data provided by the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange. The 5.3 percent growth in the manufacturing sector was stronger than the average increase of 4.8 percent in the combined revenue of all listed companies, the department said in a statement. The expansion in the manufacturing sector was mainly attributed to contract electronics manufacturers and electronic component makers, the department said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
South Korea to top spending
South Korea is expected to retain its top position in semiconductor equipment spending next year, while China is to replace Taiwan as the world’s second-biggest spender, a projection released yesterday by industry association SEMI showed. This year, South Korean semiconductor firms are forecast to spend US$19.5 billion on new equipment, an increase from last year’s US$8.5 billion, as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd increases its spending, SEMI said. Global semiconductor equipment spending is expected to jump 37 percent annually to a record-high US$55 billion this year, and grow 5 percent next year to US$58 billion, SEMI said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Chang Wah to issue shares
Semiconductor materials supplier Chang Wah Technology Co Ltd (長華科技) yesterday said its board has agreed to issue between 5 million and 6 million new shares to back a capital injection. The board has tentatively priced the new shares at between NT$390 and NT$450 per share, and the firm plans to use the proceeds to repay bank loans, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. The company plans to reserve 15 percent of the shares’ subscription rights for employees and 10 percent for the public, with the remainder to be made available to current shareholders, the filing showed.
ENTERTAINMENT
Cayenne Ark to raise funds
Mobile game distributor Cayenne Ark Mobile Co Ltd (辣椒方舟) yesterday said it plans to raise no more than NT$55.58 million through the issuance of new shares on the Taipei Exchange’s Emerging Stock Board, in a bid to replenish operating capital. The Taipei-based company, which has paid-in capital of NT$150 million, priced the new shares at NT$9 each, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. From January through last month, Cayenne Ark, an affiliate of Cayenne Entertainment Technology Co (紅心辣椒), saw revenue plunge 57.79 percent from a year earlier to NT$46.5 million.
FINANCE
Holding firms’ net profit falls
The nation’s 15 financial holding companies reported an aggregate net profit of NT$32.36 billion for last month, down 37 percent from a month earlier, but up 10 percent from the same period last year, a Daiwa Capital Markets Inc client note issued yesterday said, citing the companies’ filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Total net profit of the 15 firms for the first eight months of the year expanded 20 percent annually to NT$219.1 billion, the note said. Banks under the companies appear to have seen more stable earnings streams than their insurance and brokerage affiliates, thanks to moderately improved top lines and reduced provisioning, Daiwa 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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained