CAL board reelects chairman
The board of China Airlines Co (華航) yesterday re-elected chairman Lee Yun-ling (李雲寧), despite market speculation that Christine Tsung (宗才怡), chairwoman of the Grand Hotel (圓山飯店), would get the job. Tsung earned a seat on the airlines' board in May.
Chinese-language media had speculated that the government would ask Tsung to take up the carrier's chairmanship if Lee retired this month.
After the election, Lee thanked the board for their support. He said the carrier has been hit hard by SARS over the last two months.
"So far, the average load factor has reached 80 percent. China Airlines expects to resume full capacity in summer," he said. "Increase of flight frequency and service to new destination are being plotted."
The carrier's president, Philip Wei (魏幸雄), was also reelected for another term yesterday.
Tesco links up with Citibank
Tesco Stores Co Taiwan (特易購), a UK-based hypermarket with four outlets around the country, yesterday linked up with Citibank Taiwan to implement a on-line inquiry service designated to help improve efficiencies in supply chain management and financing service.
"We aim to build a closer relationship with suppliers by providing thorough information to them," David Orchard-Smith, chief executive officer of Tesco Taiwan, said at a press conference.
He said that through the system, Tesco suppliers will be able to monitor financial data online anytime to facilitate the accounting managements.
The Tesco project will be a benchmark for Citibank in provide advanced supply-chain management to the retail-service industry, said Jerry Chen (陳亮丞), head of global transaction services at Citibank Taiwan.
UMC posts mixed sales result
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) said yesterday that sales last month rose 4.72 percent from a year earlier to NT$7.03 billion (US$204.48 million). The figures, however, were down from NT$7.36 billion in May.
In the first half of the year, the sales of the world's second largest contract microchip maker rose to NT$39.60 billion from NT$30.74 billion a year earlier, the company said.
The second quarter capacity utilization rate was expected to exceed 80 percent, up from 67 percent in the first three months, it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電) showed a faster growth rate, as it said earlier this week that its sales last month rose 14.27 percent to NT$17.85 billion from NT$15.62 billion a year earlier and were up 6.2 percent from May. In the first half of the year, TSMC's sales increased to NT$89.25 billion from NT$79.97 billion.
Rating unchanged by deal
Standard and Poor's Ratings Ser-vices said yesterday that its ratings on Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) would not be affected by the company's announcement last Friday that it had secured a contract worth NT$298 billion to supply liquefied natural gas to Taiwan Power Co's (Taipower, 台電) new Tatan thermal plant for 25 years.
"Although Chinese Petroleum's bid was well below Taipower's reference price of NT$400 billion, Chinese Petroleum expects a profit margin of between 7 percent and 10 percent on the contract because the company is able to secure a supply of low-cost LNG from Qatar," S&P said in a statement.
NT dollar hits 10-month high
The New Taiwan dollar had its highest close in 10 months as the currency rose NT$3.0 against the US dollar to close at NT$34.350 on the Taipei foreign exchange market yesterday.
Turnover was US$363 million.
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