CURRENCIES
Forex reserves set record
Foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, partly because of the central bank buying the US currency to slow the New Taiwan dollar’s appreciation. Forex reserves rose US$2.54 billion from a month earlier to US$466.97 billion, the central bank said on Friday. In addition to its purchases of the greenback, a higher euro, which is in the bank’s investment portfolio, and an increase in investment returns boosted forex reserves last month, the central bank said.
ELECTRONICS
New phones boost HTC
HTC Corp reported consolidated sales of NT$1.46 billion (US$46.95 million) for last month, up 93.89 percent from a month earlier, but still down 34.46 percent from a year earlier. The high month-on-month increase in sales largely reflected the unveiling of its latest two mid-range smartphones — the U19e and Desire 19+ — with starting prices of NT$14,900 and NT$9,900 respectively. Sales in the first six months decreased 63.05 percent year-on-year to NT$5.75 billion amid stiff competition in the global market.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai posts June record
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co on Friday reported its highest-ever sales for June, with analysts attributing it to solid demand for communication and computing devices. Consolidated sales were NT$396.54 billion last month, up 1.71 percent from a year earlier and 3.2 percent from a month earlier, the company said. Hon Hai’s second-quarter sales rose 10.07 percent from the first quarter to NT$1.16 trillion, the highest for the April-June period, and its combined sales in the first six months increased 5.14 percent to NT$2.22 trillion from a year earlier, company data showed.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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