■ Taisugar to shed staff
Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) chairman Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) confirmed yesterday that the state-run company will downsize its personnel by 45 percent, or 2,500 staff, by January next year.
The move, which aims to alleviate the company's financial difficulties, is estimated to save Taisugar NT$3.7 billion annually, Wu said.
"Our high personnel cost, which is higher than that in private companies, has been our largest obstacle," Wu told a press conference yesterday. "The cut in personnel is the only way to maintain the company."
Although Taisugar reported NT$2.19 billion in pretax revenues last year, Wu said land sales made the financial results look good.
■ Ministry to study rumors
The Ministry of Finance is investigating rumors spread to depositors of Kaohsiung Business Bank's (高雄企銀) Linyuan branch that nearly triggered a small-scale bank run on Monday.
"A life insurer's salesperson allegedly spread rumors that the bank is failing to panic depositors so as to entice them into withdrawing their bank money to buy insurance," Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧), deputy director-general of the ministry's bureau of monetary affairs, told a press conference yesterday.
Huang assured the bank's clients that the bank, despite being debt ridden, is fully covered by the nation's deposit insurance system and that no bank clients would suffer any losses.
Citing the Bank Law, Huang said that employees of the life insurer under investigation, if convicted of spreading the rumor, face up to a five-year sentence or a maximum fine of NT$10 million.
■ Chen promotes silk industry
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said Monday that the construction of Taiwan's first silk weaving industrial zone will be completed in June next year at Touliou, Yunlin County.
Speaking at the anniversary of the Taiwan Silk and Filament Weaving Industrial Association (台灣區絲織公會), Chen said Taiwan's silk weaving industry is competitive in the world market with exports amounting to NT$102 billion (US$3 billion) a year.
■ Silicon Integrated cuts forecast
Silicon Integrated System Corp (矽統), the world's third-largest maker of chipsets for personal computers, cut this year's pretax profit forecast by 72 percent, blaming competition and a decline in prices.
The company cut its forecast to NT$201 million (US$6 million) from NT$708 million, Silicon Integrated said in a statement, citing unaudited estimates. The company didn't provide a net income forecast.
Silicon Integrated last week said sales last month fell 21.6 percent to NT$1.4 billion from a year earlier. Sales declined from NT$1.6 billion in the previous month.
■ Compal shares hit daily limit
Shares of Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊) closed up by their daily limit yesterday on their stock exchange debut as the Taipei-based cellphone maker reported record sales of NT$2.16 billion last month, up 267.41 percent from a year ago.
Compal Communications rose NT$7.50, or the 7 percent market limit, to NT$117.50 on the TAIEX.
The company, which supplies handsets to Motorola Inc, Panasonic and Alcatel on a contract basis, expected shipments for next year rise to 7.5 million units, from 3.5 million units this year, company president Henry Lee (李南雄) said last month.
■ NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar strengthened against its US counterpart yesterday, advancing NT$0.045 to close at NT$34.015 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$449 million.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last