FOREX
Reserves up US$1.031bn
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves last month totaled US$451.5 billion, up US$1.031 billion from November, due to an increase in returns on funds managed by the central bank, a statement posted on the bank’s Web site on Friday said. Central bank data also showed that holdings of Taiwanese stocks, bonds and New Taiwan dollar-denominated deposits by foreign investors fell US$200 million from November to US$391.6 billion, accounting for 87 percent of foreign exchange reserves.
CREDIT CARDS
Cards, spending increase
As of the end of November, the number of credit cards in circulation reached 44.67 million, up by 160,000 from the end of October, and the number of effective credit cards totaled 27.94 million, an increase of 170,000 from the previous month, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Thursday. Credit card spending in November increased 8.29 percent from the previous month to NT$233.7 billion, bringing total spending in the first 11 months of last year to NT$2.39 trillion, up 8.4 percent year-on-year, it said.
MACHINERY
Rising demand boosts exports
The nation’s machinery equipment exports grew 20.14 percent annually to US$23.2 billion for the first 11 months of last year and the whole-year figure could increase by 20 percent to total US$25 billion due to recovering demand in major markets, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會). For this year, exports could rise more than 10 percent as more businesses introduce automation to boost productivity, TAMI chairman Alex Ko (柯拔希) told the newspaper.
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