CONSTRUCTION
TCC starts share buyback
Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥) on Friday said it would implement a share buyback program today, in which it plans to repurchase 6 million common shares at NT$26.53 to NT$56.63 per share to reward employees. The size of the purchase represents 0.14 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, it said, adding that the buyback is to continue until April 3. The company’s shares closed at NT$37.9 on Friday in Taipei trading.
ELECTRONICS
Wistron expands in India
Contract electronics maker Wistron Corp (緯創) on Friday said its board has approved investments of US$175 million in its subsidiary Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (Kunshan) Co (緯新資通崑山) and US$55 million in Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Co to expand its capacity for assembling smart devices. The Central News Agency has reported that Wistron plans to build a new plant in Bengaluru, India, to manufacturer handsets and other electronics products.
APPLIANCES
Sampo to offer 3% to 5% raise
Sampo Corp (聲寶) on Friday said it plans to raise employee wages by between 3 percent and 5 percent in the second half of this year, as the home appliance maker is confident in its business performance this year. Revenue this year could increase by 10 percent from NT$8.66 billion (US$296.22 million) last year, Sampo chairman Felix Chen (陳盛沺) said at the company’s annual banquet for employees. Earnings growth this year could outpace revenue growth, he added, without elaborating. The company has also decided to offer employees bonuses that are equivalent to two months’ salary, he 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