Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥) on Thursday said it is in talks with Turkish conglomerate Sanko Holding SA about a possible strategic partnership in view of the growing cement market in Turkey.
If a partnership is reached it would be the first time that the Taiwanese firm acquires a springboard to the European market, Taiwan Cement said.
Sanko is active in a wide range of industries, including cement, textiles, energy, plastic packaging, construction machinery, information technology, securities and finance, and real estate.
With a workforce of more than 14,000, the company is among the top 500 enterprises in Turkey.
Sanko owns three cement plants in Turkey, making it a medium-sized cement supplier in that country, Taiwan Cement said.
Under chairman Nelson Chang (張安平), Taiwan Cement has been transforming itself into an energy-efficient company with larger international visibility.
In addition to locations in Taiwan and China, the company is seeking to enter the US and European markets.
After careful evaluation, the company decided that Turkey, with a population of 80 million, has great growth potential in terms of domestic demand and is worthy of investment, Taiwan Cement said.
It said that it and Sanko have maintained close contact since the beginning of the year, as the Turkish firm appears willing to join forces.
The form of the partnership is still being negotiated, Taiwan Cement added.
Shares of Taiwan Cement rose 0.78 percent to close at NT$45.25 in Taipei trading yesterday.
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