The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday approved a NT$3.5 billion (US$113.5 million) investment by nonwoven fabrics manufacturer Nan Liu Enterprise Co Ltd (南六), which is planning to move high-value-added production lines to Taiwan to circumvent heavy tariffs stemming from the US-China trade dispute.
Nan Liu plans to build an operating center and a smart manufacturing base in Kaohsiung’s Yenchao District (燕巢) and the investment would create 72 jobs, the ministry said in a statement.
As of Sept. 30 last year, Nan Liu had 959 employees with 66 percent in China.
Nan Liu provides consumer hygiene products for babies and women, spunlace nonwoven fabrics, through-air thermal-bonded nonwoven fabrics and fabric for disposable surgical gowns, according to the company’s Web site.
The company has joined Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), home decor manufacturer Ching Feng Home Fashions Co Ltd (慶豐富) and telecom equipment maker Accton Technology Corp (智邦科技) in moving investments back from abroad, the ministry said.
The ministry said it has attracted NT$22.2 billion in investments from the four manufacturers since it set up a task force for home-bound investments.
Nan Liu’s consolidated revenue rose 5.48 percent to NT$569.3 million last year, compared with NT$529.3 million in 2017, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Its net profit grew 17.59 percent to NT$449.97 million in the first three quarters last year, compared with NT$382.65 million in the same period in 2017, while earnings per share climbed from NT$5.27 to NT$6.2.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained