■ Semiconductors
Equipment orders rise
North American companies that sell equipment used to build semiconductors had a gain in orders last month from August, Semiconduc-tor Equipment and Mate-rials International said in a statement. The book-to-bill ratio for North American chip-tool makers was 0.95 last month, indicating that US$95 in orders were made for every US$100 in sales, the trade group said in a statement. The three-month average of worldwide book-ings last month was $760.5 million, up 3.9 percent from $731.8 million in August. Orders were 8.5 percent below the $832 million posted in September last year, the group said.
■ Robotics
Global sales rise 26%
Increased sales of industrial robots in North America and Europe have revived the global market for the machines, a UN report said. The annual World Robotics Survey, released yesterday, said a 26 percent rise in business orders coincides with an increase in the number of robots used around the home mow lawns and vacuum floors. The report said 80,000 robots were sold between January and June. Orders for new factory robots rose 35 percent in North America and 25 percent in Europe, compen-sating for a decline in Japan.
■ Manufacturing
3M profits jump 22%
Favorable currency factors helped 3M Corp show a 22 percent jump in third quar-ter earnings to US$663 million compared with a year ago, the company said on Monday. It posted a profit per share of US$0.83, better than the US$0.79 expected on Wall Street. Revenues increased 11.4 percent to US$4.616 billion. It boosted its outlook for the fourth quarter
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced