EVA Airways Corp (
"We have signed a contract with Boeing ... we expect to start taking delivery of these aircraft in 2005," EVA spokesman Nieh Kuo-wei (
The report, from international financial news service Bloomberg LP, is "totally wrong," he said.
Boeing also denied the report, responding to media queries in a statement by saying "EVA Airways signed an agreement as a launch customer for Boeing 777-200LR two years ago. As of this release, EVA Airways has no plan to change the first scheduled delivery that's set for 2005."
Bloomberg, in a report on Monday, said that during an interview EVA chairman Yu Chong-ho (
In June 2000, EVA placed an order worth US$3 billion for seven passenger aircraft, three B777-200LRs and four B777-300ERs, with options on eight more.
Cancellation of the Boeing order by EVA -- which remains the only customer for the yet-to-be-produced jets -- would have been a boon for Airbus, who competes against the 777s with its comparable A340 series of long-range aircraft. While stating that the order remains unchanged, EVA said in a statement that it had not ruled out the possibility of altering its eight options.
"Both Boeing and Airbus are in regular contact with EVA," Nieh said. "Boeing wants to sell its 777s and Airbus wants to sell its A340s. Both are being evaluated and it's a hard decision to make."
An Airbus executive who requested anonymity admitted that the European aircraft manufacturer had been aggressively marketing the A340-500s to EVA -- which are currently undergoing tests and are set for delivery by the end of the year.
But EVA has a record of canceling Airbus orders. In 1997, EVA ordered six long-range A340-500s. It bailed out of the deal in 2000 and instead decided to purchase Boeing 777s.
Airbus eventually broke Boeing's hold on EVA last January when it sealed an order with Taiwan's second-largest carrier to sell two A330-200s for delivery in 2003.
Rollout of the 777-300ER is slated for later this year. Flight testing of the 777-300ER will take place in 2003 with rollout of 777-200LR airplanes slated for 2004.
Capable of holding 301 passengers, the 777-200LR has a maximum range of 16,400km, enabling it to fly 18 hours non-stop between routes such as New York to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Atlanta, Georgia to Hong Kong.
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],”