SOLAR CELLS
Gintech-Neo deal rumored
Solar cell makers Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶能源), Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光能源) and Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽光電) on Friday said in separate statements that their stocks will stop trading today on the local stock market. The announcements sparked speculation that the companies might be planning to combine their solar cell manufacturing capabilities to better cope with industrial volatility. The companies are scheduled to hold a press conference today.
INVESTMENT
Cathay Securities’ Chu quits
Cathay Securities Co (國泰證券), the brokerage arm of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), on Friday said chairman Stanley Chu (朱士廷) has offered to resign due to personal career planning. Chu’s departure would take effect on Dec. 1 and president Chuang Shun-yu (莊順裕) would serve as acting chairman during the transition period, the company said. Chu, a former vice president of the Taiwan Stock Exchange, took over the helm of Cathay Securities in May 2011.
ECONOMY
Listed firms’ sales up 7.24%
Companies on the Taiwan Stock Exchange saw their combined sales last month increase 7.24 percent year-on-year on a consolidated basis, driven mainly by firms in the steel, papermaking and electric wire and fiber industries. Listed companies posted a total of NT$2.769 trillion (US$91.7 billion) in revenue last month, up NT$186.8 billion from a year earlier, the exchange said on Thursday. Among them, 566 businesses saw their total revenue rise annually, while 271 reported declining sales. The aggregate sales of the 837 companies listed on the bourse totaled NT$21.21 trillion in the first nine months of the year, up 5.13 percent from a year earlier, the exchange 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