EXPORTS
Taiwan 18th in world
Exports totaled US$371.2 billion last year, accounting for 1.8 percent of the world’s total and ranking in 18th place, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday, citing the latest WTO statistics. China remained the world’s largest exporter, with outbound shipments totaling US$2.3 trillion last year to take a 12.8 percent global share. The US was second with exports of US$1.5 trillion, followed by Germany’s US$1.4 trillion. Overall, global exports expanded 10.6 percent year-on-year to US$17.7 trillion last year, ending two consecutive years of decline, the ministry said.
LABOR
Wages rose in February
The average wage comprised of regular and non-regular salaries, such as bonuses and overtime pay, rose 46.94 percent month-on-month to NT$86,832 in February, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said on Thursday. The figure was up 89.92 percent from a year earlier, because of the issuance of average year-end bonuses which totaled NT$68,017 at the end of February, the highest in the past three years, the agency said. The average regular wages for the month fell 0.71 percent from January, to NT$40,483, as the Lunar New Year holiday shortened the number of working days.
INVESTMENT
Qatar’s bonds in Taiwan
Qatar is raising US$6 billion by selling 30-year US dollar bonds in Taiwan as part of its first US dollar bond sale in two years. The bonds are being sold in five-year, 10-year and 30-year tranches, with Deutsche Bank Taipei branch and Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) the bookrunners for the 30-year bonds, which will be listed on the Luxembourg exchange and the Taipei Exchange.
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
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],”