ENERGY
CPC hikes LPG, LNG prices
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday announced price hikes for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Effective today, the price of household LPG is to increase by NT$1.6 per kilogram, translating into a NT$32 hike for a 20kg gas cylinder, CPC said. The price of LPG used in cars is to rise by NT$0.9 per liter, it added. The average price of LNG is to rise by 2.99 percent from last month, it said. The price hike translates into an additional cost of NT$9.9 to NT$14.85 for households that use 30m3 to 45m3 of LNG per month respectively, CPC said.
STEELMAKERS
Feng Hsin keeps rebar prices
Feng Hsin Steel Co (豐興鋼鐵) yesterday said it would keep its rebar product prices unchanged at NT$18,900 per tonne this week, after an increase of NT$200 per tonne last week. Its scrap buying prices would also stay unchanged at NT$10,200 per tonne after also rising NT$200 per tonne last week, the company said. The company’s rebar product and scrap purchase prices rose for three consecutive weeks amid steady market demand, Feng Hsin said.
ELECTRONICS
Ichia revenue up 2.36%
Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) yesterday reported a consolidated revenue of NT$731.84 million (US$23.95 million) for last month, up 2.36 percent from August and 5.77 percent from a year earlier. For the first nine months of this year, consolidated revenue totaled NT$5.34 billion, up 1.68 percent annually, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Sales generated from its flexible printed-circuit integrated components reached NT$536 million last month, accounting for 73 percent of total sales, while those of mechanical integrated components were NT$204 million, Ichia said.
ENTERTAINMENT
S.H.E. contracts expire
Record label HIM International Music Inc (華研國際) on Sunday said that its exclusive agency contracts with S.H.E. singers Ella Chen (陳嘉樺), Selina Jen (任家萱) and Hebe Tien (田馥甄) have expired, and that talks about collaboration with the three are under way. Any changes to the contracts would affect its sales and operating expenses, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, adding that the three singers’ agency contracts made up about 29.4 percent of its revenue in the first eight months of this year. The trio’s gross profit made up about 12.6 percent of the company’s total gross profit over the period, HIM said. A new contract’s exact financial impact on its operating profit would have to be calculated, the company said. HIM shares rose 4.39 percent to close at NT$85.6 yesterday.
AUTOMOTIVE
Lexus, VW top expectations
The two car brands that best meet or exceed customer expectations in Taiwan are Lexus and Volkswagen (VW) in the luxury and non-luxury categories respectively, auto market advisory firm J.D. Power said. Lexus scored 843 points to top the sales satisfaction index in the nation’s luxury car market this year, followed by Mercedes-Benz at 840 points and BMW at 827 points, J.D. Power said in its annual report. In the non-luxury category, Volkswagen scored 822 points to claim the top position, followed by Luxgen (811) and Mazda (810), the report showed.
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],”