MANUFACTURING
Khgears to debut tomorrow
Precision gear maker Khgears International Ltd (鈞興) is expected to start trading on the Taiwan Stock Exchange tomorrow, with an initial public offering price (IPO) of about NT$70. The company, incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is to be the first foreign-registered entity to conduct an IPO on the local main bourse this year. Khgears, the world’s largest supplier of high-end small and medium bevel gears, reported cumulative revenue of NT$1.08 billion (US$34.78 million) in the first eight months, up 5 percent year-on-year.
LABOR
Overtime hours decline
The average number of overtime hours for July fell 0.6 hours, or 7.32 percent, from a year earlier to 7.6 hours, the ninth consecutive month of decline, indicating that a slowing economy has affected the job market, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said on Wednesday. The average number of working hours rose 6.9 hours, or 3.92 percent, from a year earlier to 183 hours in July, it said. In the first seven months of the year, the average number of overtime hours fell 3.7 percent from a year earlier to 7.8 hours and the average number of working hours also fell 0.12 percent to 166.3 hours, the agency said.
TECHNOLOGY
Taiwan takes India to WTO
Taiwan has initiated a dispute complaint with the WTO over tariffs imposed by India on certain information and communications technology (ICT) merchandise. The WTO on Monday last week said Taiwan has requested dispute consultations regarding duties imposed on such imports. Taiwan said India has slapped tariffs on 11 categories of ICT products, going beyond its bound duty rates for these goods.
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