CHIPMAKERS
TSMC unveils 6nm process
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday unveiled its 6-nanometer (nm) process technology, a significant improvement over 7nm technology. Migrating designs to the advanced process provides customers a performance-to-cost advantage and a shorter time to market, it said. Scheduled to start production in the first quarter of next year, the 6nm technology extends the firm’s lead in the industry for applications ranging from high-end mobile to consumer applications, artificial intelligence, networking, 5G infrastructure, graphics processing units and high-performance computing, it added.
INVESTMENT
Subsidiaries fetch top profits
Locally listed companies booked record-high income from investments in their Chinese subsidiaries last year of NT$327.5 billion (US$10.6 billion), statistics released yesterday by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed. Nearly triple the NT$51.4 billion in 2017, the total received a significant boost from Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd’s (FII, 富士康工業互連) contribution to parent company Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the statistics showed. Hon Hai holds an 85 percent stake in FII, which manufactures casings, network equipment and servers.
TRANSPORTATION
Chung Lien to cut 1,054 jobs
Chung Lien Transportation Co Ltd (中連貨運) yesterday said it plans to cut 1,054 jobs, or more than 98 percent of its workforce, due to the depressed cargo market. The company would offer a severance package or pension to those affected, it said, adding that it plans to switch from the cargo market to real-asset leasing. The Taichung Labor Affairs Bureau received a dismissal plan from Chung Lien yesterday afternoon, according to the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The company plans to lay off workers in three waves from Sept. 1, the bureau’s labor relations section head Shi Shu-chu (施淑珠) said.
BANKING
Yuan deposits see slight rise
Yuan deposits in Taiwan totaled 282.2 billion yuan (US$42.05 billion) last month, terminating a five-month decline with a fractional 0.3 percent increase from February, the central bank said, adding that it was surprised by the increase, which likely resulted from the redemption of yuan-denominated mutual funds. Some local firms use the Chinese currency to settle accounts for operations in China, the bank said. Otherwise, investment interest in the yuan continued to weaken in Taiwan after lenders cut interest rates on yuan deposits, it added.
CHINA
New home prices climb faster
New home prices grew slightly faster last month after growth had slowed in February, putting a floor under the cooling market, as Beijing rolled out stimulus to boost the economy. The sector’s solid growth could cushion the effect of a vigorous multi-year government crackdown on debt, as well as trade tensions with the US, although some analysts say that the risk of a bubble rises as prices continue to climb. Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 0.6 percent last month, quickening from a 0.5 percent gain in February, according to Reuters’ calculation of data released yesterday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Overall, the bureau logged the 47th straight month of price increases.
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],”