■ MSCI may grant full weighting
Morgan Stanley Capital Interna-tional Inc may allow Taiwan to be fully represented in its global stock benchmarks, which may mean more of the US$3 trillion in funds tracking its indexes will go to the nation's shares. Taiwanese stocks, which make up Asia's fifth-largest stock market, have about 55 percent of their market value represented in MSCI indexes. MSCI may increase Taiwan's representation in two steps -- to 75 percent in November and to 100 percent in May next year. A decision will be announced by June 18, the index provider said in a release yesterday. MSCI said in February that it was considering Taiwan's full-weighting after the government scrapped a limit in July on how much foreign investors can hold. After its full inclusion, Taiwan would become the largest country constituent in the MSCI Far East -- excluding the Japan Index -- surpassing South Korea's market, with a representation of 27.7 percent, according to Citigroup Inc. Taiwan currently has a 17.7 percent weighting, behind South Korea and Hong Kong.
■ Formosa Petro profits rise
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) posted a pre-tax profit yesterday of NT$9.65 billion for the first quarter of the year, reaching 51.33 percent of the company's forecast for the year, a press released said yesterday. Formosa Petrochemical, a refinery unit of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑), reported revenues for the same period totaled NT$73.95 billion, the statement said, noting that the upturn was a result of the rising prices in oil amid the recovering world economy.
■ ProMOS in third-straight gain
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), the nation's second-largest computer memory-chip maker, posted its third-straight quarter of profit after sales nearly doubled. The company's unaudited profit in the three-month period ended March 31 was NT$1.3 billion (US$39.3 million), compared with a NT$977 million loss in the same period a year earlier. Sales soared 92 percent to NT$9.6 billion.
■ Former CNFI chairman dies
Lin Kun-chung (林坤鐘), the 70-year old former chairman of the Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI, 工總), died on Wednesday due to complications from cardiac surgery. Lin founded the Sinogroup Corp (中日國際企業) in early 1960, as a major importer of corn and other animal feed. He served as chairman of the Taiwan Feed Industry Association (飼料工業同業公會) in the 1970s and was a legislator in 1980. He was also a national policy adviser to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). As CNFI chairman, Lin was the first business leader to lead a group on a visit to former Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民).
■ China Shipbuilding posts profit
China Shipbuilding Corp (中船) continued to post profits in the first quarter of this year, with the figure for the quarter estimated to hit NT$160 million (US$4.85 million), the company said Wednesday. In a preliminary estimate, the just-privatized shipbuilder registered business turnover of NT$3.77 billion for the first three months of this year, reaching about 90 percent of the company's target for the period. However, the estimated profit of NT$160 million was 172.7 percent of the company's target, according to the company. The company registered net annual profits of NT$500 million last year, well above its target of NT$280 million for the year.
■ NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday continued losing ground against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.089 to close at NT$33.110 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$651 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