TIRES
Kenda cuts dividend
Kenda Rubber Industrial Co (建大輪胎), the nation’s second-largest tire manufacturer, yesterday said its board has approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$2 per share, slightly down from NT$2.2 last year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The proposal came after the company’s net profit last year decreased 10.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.09 billion (US$101.2 million), or earnings per share of NT$3.54. Revenue fell 5.6 percent to NT$29.49 billion during the same period. Kenda is to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 15 where shareholders are to vote on the payout proposal.
BANKING
Citibank to shut a branch
Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) yesterday announced plans to shut at least one more branch in the second half of this year, as the company continues to focus on delivering its services online after closing four of its branches last year. The bank is to merge two branches in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) to cut down on redundant coverage, it said. Meanwhile, its branch in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) yesterday became its 37th “smart branch,” offering interactive media-enhanced financial planning, investment modeling and tracking services.
EQUITIES
TAIEX rallies after sell-off
Shares closed little changed yesterday, moving in consolidation mode after the local main board’s strong recent showing, dealers said. Sentiment turned cautious about possible technical resistance ahead of the TAIEX’s 10,000-point mark and many investors took to the sidelines, which dragged down turnover and left some large-cap stocks in the doldrums, dealers said. The weighted index closed up 4.28 points, or 0.04 percent, at 9,912.97, after fluctuating between 9,869.35 and 9,916.18. Turnover totaled NT$82.65 billion during the session after reaching NT$109.55 billion on Friday last week. The market opened down 2.88 points as investors took their cue from a lackluster Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.1 percent and the S&P 500 index was 0.13 percent lower after Washington released mixed economic data on Friday last week, dealers said. Selling increased on the local main board, pushing the index below 9,900 points at one point, as investors locked in their gains from last week, but later bargain hunting helped the index return to positive territory by the end of the session, they said.
TRADE
Siew to attend forum: source
Former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) is to lead a Taiwanese delegation to this year’s Boao Forum for Asia from Thursday to Sunday in Boao, China, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. Siew is to attend a forum themed “Globalization and Free Trade — Asian Perspectives,” in his capacity as honorary chairman of the Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation. The former vice president is scheduled to arrive in Boao on Friday, where he will be greeted at the airport by a Taiwan Affairs Office deputy director, the source said. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced at a news conference on Friday last week that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) will also attend the forum. However, Chinese authorities have yet to unveil the list of officials invited to attend this year’s four-day conference.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”