DATA STORAGE
CMC sees shares rise
Shares of CMC Magnetics Corp (中環), which makes recordable CDs, yesterday rose 9.97 percent after it announced a share buyback scheme late on Thursday. CMC is to repurchase shares on the open market from yesterday to Nov. 19 at about NT$5 to NT$10 per share, the company said. CMC said it is to buy back 50 million shares, or as much as 2.74 percent of the total, during the period. Shares of CMC yesterday closed at NT$6.84 in Taipei trading. They have risen 60.94 percent this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. CMC reported sales of NT$5.698 billion (US$185.5 million) for the first eight months of the year, down 3.84 percent year-on-year.
STOCK MARKETS
FPC surpasses Hon Hai
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC, 台塑石化), the nation’s only publicly traded oil refiner, has replaced contract electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) to become the second-largest stock on the local market in terms of market value. The company, one of the four major units of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), which is the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday saw its shares rise 5.76 percent to close at NT$147, which gave it a market value of NT$1.4 trillion. Shares of Hon Hai closed at NT$75.8, with a market value of NT$1.31 trillion.
CHIPMAKERS
FocalTech files complaint
FocalTech Systems Co (敦泰電子), a supplier of touchpanel controllers, on Thursday said Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠科技) has infringed on another patent held by FocalTech and the company has requested the Intellectual Property Court in Taipei to grant a preliminary injunction to stop Novatek from manufacturing and selling chips using its technology. The patent is about making a new single chip that integrates display drivers and touch controllers, FocalTech said in a statement. The company said it plans to seek compensation of more than NT$794.36 million, which it announced on Tuesday is what it faces from loss of business.
STEELMAKERS
bHsin Kuang expects growth
Hsin Kuang Steel Co (新光鋼鐵) expects to post higher earnings growth this year as global steel demand remains relatively stable, Hsin Kuang chairman Su Ming-te (粟明德) told an investors’ conference on Thursday. The company would also work to diversify its business to include the production of offshore wind power equipment, Su said. The company reported earnings per share of NT$3.01 in the first half of the year, up from NT$1.71 in the same period last year. Hsin Kuang is investing in steel-bracket welding, which is applied in offshore wind turbine foundations. The company also holds an 11 percent stake in Century Iron & Steel Industrial Co (世紀鋼構), which has received steel orders for use in domestic offshore wind farm development.
AUTO PARTS
Hota shares rise 2.2%
Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業), which makes gears and shafts for automobiles, motorcycles and agricultural tractors, yesterday saw its shares rise 2.2 percent on speculation that it is likely to enter the supply chain of Toyota Motor Co’s electric-gasoline hybrid cars next year. Rising orders and growing demand for electric cars have benefited Hota, which reported record sales of NT$4.86 billion in the first eight months of the year, up 8.54 percent from the same period last year.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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