ELECTRONICS
HTC, Jimmy Liao team up
Jimmy S.P.A. Plus Co Ltd (墨色國際), a company founded to promote artist Jimmy Liao (幾米) as a cultural brand around the globe, and HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday announced plans to integrate HTC’s virtual reality technology with Liao’s latest picture books. The crossover between the arts and technology industries extends Liao’s imagination from paper to the three-dimensional realm, HTC said in a statement. The “HTC Vive x Jimmy Liao’s All of My World Is You” exhibition can be visited at the Taipei World Trade Center through Sunday, HTC said.
COMPUTERS
Acer releases ebooks
PC maker Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday released 30 ebooks authorized by the National Palace Museum. Acer founder and former chairman Stan Shih (施振榮) said the company plans to introduce a total of 100 ebooks in cooperation with the museum before the end of this year. He also said Acer does not rule out cooperation between the museum and Acer’s virtual reality (VR) technologies for digital dissertation projects. Acer chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) on Monday said the company has been investing in VR technologies R&D for a while.
AUTOMOMAKERS
Hotai forecasts flat sales
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Taiwan, yesterday said it expects automotive sales to reach 420,000 cars this year, similar to last year’s sales amid uncertainties in the global economy. Company president Justin Su (蘇純興) told a news conference that the firm expects to sell 130,000 Toyota and Lexus models this year, down slightly from last year’s 132,000. Due to the clouded outlook of the global economy, Su said the company lowered its market share by 2 percentage points to 31 percent this year from the 33 percent share last year.
RETAIL
President sales increase
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), which operates the nation’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, yesterday said that sales last month rose 8.39 percent annually to NT$17.38 billion (US$519.53 million). The company said that sales were boosted by cold and wet weather across Taiwan last month, which drove up demand for hot food and beverage products by about 20 percent compared with the previous year. Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), the nation’s second-largest convenience store operator, said sales last month grew 6.57 percent year-on-year to NT$4.75 billion.
ELECTRONICS
Delta annual sales rise
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said that sales last month rose 2 percent annually, but declined 7.1 percent sequentially to NT$17.15 billion. During the period, power supply products contributed 53 percent of sales, followed by power management products at 25 percent, while green energy and smart home products accounted for 20 percent of revenues. Delta shares yesterday gained 4.83 percent to close at NT$141 in Taipei trading yesterday, recovering from its tumble to NT$124 on Jan. 21, the lowest since August 2013, but still lower than the NT$150 price point at which the company had issued 160 million new shares last month aiming to raise NT$24 billion in capital. The company yesterday also announced that it would build an R&D center in India with 500 high-technology engineer positions in the next three years. The R&D center is to focus on developing advanced smart energy solutions, the firm said in a statement.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
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