China Airlines' credit rating was cut by Taiwan Ratings Corp (
Taiwan Ratings cut the rating to "twBBB," three notches below investment grade, from "twBBB+," because China Airlines' sales and profit will fall, and insurance expenses will probably rise two-fifths after the airline had its fifth fatal crash in 11 years on Saturday, the agency said in a statement.
"It will make it more difficult for them to raise money and push the stock down further," said Margaret Lin, who manages NT$800 million at Truswell Securities Investment Trust (
China Air also grounded its four Boeing Co 747-200 cargo planes for inspection, forcing the cancellation of 12 flights a week. The planes are the same model as the one that broke up in midair and plunged into the sea near Taiwan on Saturday. None of the 225 passengers and crew on board have been found alive.
"Whenever people want to buy the stock, something terrible happens. That's the last straw," Lin said. "If we want to buy an airline stock, we'd choose another one, such as EVA."
CAL's shares fell 6.9 percent to NT$14.15, adding to a 6.8 percent drop yesterday. Shares of EVA Airways Corp, Taiwan's second-largest carrier, rose by their daily limit of 6.7 percent to NT$14.35, adding to a 6.8 percent rise yesterday.
The downgrade reflects "falling load factors, reduced passenger revenue, and the rising insurance costs, all of which will hurt the company's earnings and cash flow generation over the next six to 12 months," Taiwan Ratings said. The lower rating may make it more difficult and expensive for China Air to borrow money from banks.
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],”