DHL Express Taiwan Corp (洋基通運) yesterday said that it has invested NT$80 million (US$2.54 million) in setting up a new logistics service center in Taoyuan, and expects an increase in consumer demand over the next few years.
The local subsidiary of Deutsche Post DHL Group, one of the world’s leading mail and logistics service groups, said that the center in Taoyuan’s Cingpu District (青埔) is to replace the existing center in Taoyuan, which is smaller and cannot keep up with growing demand.
The new center would be the largest of the company’s 10 service centers in Taiwan at 4,000m2, DHL Express Taiwan communications manager Frankie Fang (方佳雯) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
With improved processing procedures and new equipment such as conveyor belts, the center’s hourly capacity would be twice as high as the old one, Fang said.
This investment signals DHL’s commitment to bolstering international trade and connecting even more local businesses to the world, DHL Express Taiwan managing director Yung C. Ooi (黃湧君) said in a statement.
Taoyuan is one of DHL’s most important service centers in Taiwan, as more than one-third of the nation’s top 500 manufacturers are located there, Ooi said.
Taoyuan ranks first among all regions in Taiwan in terms of industrial output, he said, adding that according to data released by the Taoyuan City Government, industrial production in the city totaled about NT$2.6 trillion last year.
The center would be able to support the rapid development of businesses in Taoyuan and help its corporate clients connect faster with the more than 220 countries in its network, he said.
“So far, the [US-China] trade dispute has had a limited effect on logistics demand in the nation. We are confident in the economical development of Taoyuan, as well as Taiwan,” Fang said.
DHL would continue investing in Taiwan and closely monitor global industrial dynamics and customer logistics needs to ensure that the highest quality of service is provided, she said.
The new center covers the greater Taoyuan area and New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), covering an area of more than 900km2, DHL Express Taiwan said.
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