ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai shares surge
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) shares yesterday rose 10 percent to close at NT$80.8 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, with 168.22 million changing hands. The shares surged after the company last week reported a fourth-quarter net profit of NT$62.62 billion (US$2.03 billion), which was up 151.72 percent quarter-on-quarter, but down 12.62 percent year-on-year. Analysts said Hon Hai shares have lagged behind the electronics sector as well as the broader market for some time and investors seized on the profit as a reason to hunt for bargains. However, the shares faces a strong technical resistance at about NT$85, analysts said.
ENERGY
LPG prices to rise
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) yesterday announced price increases for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) while leaving the price of liquefied natural gas unchanged. Effective today, the price of household LPG is to be increased by NT$1.2 per kilogram, which means a 20kg gas cylinder would cost NT$24 more, while the price of LPG used in vehicles is to rise by NT$0.7 per liter, the company said in a statement.
BANKING
Banks to lose NT$2.3bn
State-run banks are estimated to have suffered losses of NT$2.3 billion due to loans to debt-ridden units of Tatung Group (大同集團), Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) said at a meeting of the the Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday. State-run banks that lent money to financially troubled Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) and Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技) have secured land and factory equipment as collateral, but they are expected to suffer a combined loss of NT$1.6 billion from Chunghwa Picture and NT$700 million from Green Energy, Su said.
METALS
Blast to cost up to NT$150m
Waffer Technology Corp (華孚科技) yesterday said an explosion at its wholly owned subsidiary in China’s Jiangsu Province on Sunday is estimated to cost between NT$120 million and NT$150 million. The unit, Kunshan Han Ding Precision Metal Co Ltd (昆山漢鼎精密金屬), reported a blast that involved a container of scrap metal in its factory’s storage area. The explosion killed seven people and wounded several others. The Jiangsu factory generated NT$3.54 billion in revenue last year.
ELECTRONICS
Ichia revenue rebounds
Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) yesterday posted revenue of NT$500 million for last month, down 19 percent from the previous year, but up 31 percent from the previous month. The company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that last month’s revenue included about NT$380 million from sales of flexible printed circuit integrated components and NT$120 million from sales of mechanical integrated components. First-quarter revenue decreased 11 percent year-on-year to NT$1.41 billion, the company said.
ELECTRONICS
Machvision revenue rises
Machvision Inc (牧德), a supplier of printed circuit board inspection equipment, yesterday posted first-quarter revenue that rose 18.6 percent year-on-year to NT$565 million and said revenue would continue to increase in the second and third quarters due to seasonal demand. The company is transfering its listing from the Taipei Exchange to the Taiwan Stock Exchange today.
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