EXCHANGES
TWSE names new chairman
The Taiwan Stock Exchange’s (TWSE) board members yesterday appointed Sherman Lin (林修銘), former chairman of Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (台灣集保), as its new chairman, while Chien Lih-chung (簡立忠) remains as TWSE president. Lin would take office today, the board said. Aged 57, Lin would be the youngest TWSE head in 60 years, its records showed. Meanwhile, the board directors of Fundrich Securities Co (基富通證券), a Taiwan Depository and Clearing unit, yesterday appointed Chu Han-chiang (朱漢強), a legal representative of the parent firm, as its new chairperson.
TELECOMS
Taiwan Mobile hikes wages
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) yesterday said it has stepped up salary hikes for employees to 7 percent this year in an effort to retain talent and help employees amid rising inflation. The wage hikes are higher than the 5.5 percent increases offered by Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) for new employees, Taiwan Mobile said in a statement. On average, Taiwan Mobile employees receive about 18 months of salary a year, the statement said. The telecom operator said that it has a hybrid working model, with employees allowed to work from home 10 days a month.
ENERGY
HD dividend approved
HD Renewable Energy Co (泓德能源) yesterday said that shareholders have approved a cash dividend distribution of NT$2 per common share, a payout ratio of 66.23 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$3.02 last year. Shareholders also approved a plan to list the company’s shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. With new green energy facilities launching operations this year, HD Renewable Energy’s revenue was NT$550 million (US$18.5 million) in the first quarter, almost tripling from the same period last year. Earnings per share soared to NT$1.03. The company said it has started building three new solar energy facilities in Tainan and Penghu County with total installed capacity of 100 megawatts a year. The facilities would be completed and connected to the grid by the end of this year, it said.
MANUFACTURING
Returning firms boost rate
Local manufacturers, mostly electronics companies, returning production to Taiwan last year, raised the proportion of locally made products to 48.4 percent of overall output, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous year, a survey conducted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s result was the highest since 2013, the ministry said. Last year’s proportion of goods made in China, including Hong Kong, was 42.4 percent, down 3.1 percentage points from 2020, it said. The ministry attributed the shift to a US-China trade dispute and restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Lower manufacturing costs were also a factor, it said. ASEAN members were favored among local manufacturers when shifting production out of China, with 3.2 percent of goods made in such nations last year, up 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier, it said. That made ASEAN the third-biggest manufacturing region for local manufacturers, the survey showed. About 70 percent of the 127 companies that have expanded production lines did so in Taiwan, the ministry said, adding that Southeast Asian countries were second with about 27 percent.
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