PETROCHEMICALS
YC sees revenues surge
YC Group (炎洲集團), which is principally engaged in the manufacture of thin films, adhesive tapes and packaging materials, on Saturday said the group’s major units saw substantial revenue growth last month due to seasonal demand. On a monthly basis, flagship unit YC Co Ltd’s (炎洲) revenue reached NT$1.49 billion (US$49.5 million) last month, up 10.33 percent from July, while subsidiaries Achem Technology Corp (萬洲) and Xin Chio Global Co Ltd (新洲) also reported revenue increases of 8.8 percent and 8.94 percent to NT$1.003 billion and NT$137 million respectively. The group is cautiously optimistic about business next quarter, as it might benefit from stable crude oil and raw material prices, as well as the completion of a new housing project in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口) , YC Group spokesman Kevin Lin (林建羽) said.
BANKING
Local yuan deposits rise
Yuan deposits held by banks operating in Taiwan rose for the fourth consecutive month last month on the back of the strength of the Chinese currency against the US dollar, the central bank said on Friday. Yuan deposits, including negotiable certificates of deposit, totaled 310.08 billion yuan (US$47.31 billion) at the end of last month, up 693 million yuan from the end of July, with deposits held by local banks’ domestic banking units totaling 277.81 billion yuan, an increase of 980 million yuan from a month earlier, and those held by offshore banking units hitting 32.27 billion yuan, down 287 million yuan month-on-month, the central bank said. To attract more yuan deposits, Ta Chong Bank (大眾銀行) offers a 4 percent interest rate for six-month yuan deposits, the highest among its local peers.
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