CHINA
PMI rose to 50.5 last month
Factory activity rebounded last month, official data showed yesterday, signaling stabilization in the economy as policy stimulus takes hold. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 50.5 last month from 49.2 in February, the biggest monthly jump since 2012. New orders and new export orders — leading sub-gauges that signal future activity — both rose to the highest levels in six months, data showed. The non-manufacturing PMI — a gauge of services and construction — stood at 54.8 last month, from 54.3 in February. Readings above 50 signal expansion.
CHIPMAKERS
TSMC founder honored
Morris Chang (張忠謀), founder of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), has won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee of 100 for his contributions to technology. The New York-based non-profit on Thursday said that Chang won the award for global technology innovation. The other two winners were architect I.M. Pei (貝聿銘) for global architectural design and Maurice Greenberg, former chairman and CEO of American International Group Inc, for advancing US-China relations.
ELECTRONICS
MOS hires Teco robots
Teco Group (東元集團) robots are to go into service in the MOS Burger chain of restaurants in Australia, starting next month, group chairman Theodore Huang (黃茂雄) said on Tuesday. MOS Burger is already using the service robots in some of its restaurants in Taiwan and Japan, Huang said. The robots, developed by Teco Electric and Machinery Co (東元電機), are used in logistics, medical care, security and the service industry, the company said.
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],”