■ Bigger bonuses paid
The economy's recovery has encouraged more employers to pay bonuses for the Dragon Boat Festival, according to a poll released yesterday by an online job bank. Some 72.83 percent of the companies polled said they would provide employees a bonus -- NT$1,279 per person, on average -- for this year's festival, which occurs today, the 9999 Job Bank said. Those figures are increases on the 66.38 percent of employers who paid bonuses averaging NT$1,161 per person last year, the job bank said. Among employers who planned to give out cash bonuses, 21.29 percent said the payments would come in under NT$500 and 43.61 percent said the bonuses would be between NT$501 and NT$1,000. In addition to cash, about 14 percent of employers planned to give rice dumplings to employees, while 8.56 percent planned to provide gift coupons, according to the survey. The poll was based on 935 respondents polled between June 6 and June 17.
■ China Airlines gets financing
China Airlines (CAL, 華航) yesterday signed a US$ 235 million (US$7.12 million) financing contract with Calyon, a leading French bank, for the airline's acquisition of three new Airbus A330-300 aircraft, the company said in a statement. China Airlines ordered 14 A330-300s from Airbus Industrie in 2002, and will take delivery between this year and 2007. The A330s will eventually replace the carrier's A300-600Rs on Asian regional routes departing from Taipei and Kaohsiung. "We are pleased to entrust Calyon as the manager, underwriter and security trustee for this financing," said Phillip Wei (魏幸雄), president of CAL, during a ceremony. Wei declined to disclose the interest rate for the 12-year loan contract, but said the financing is guaranteed by European export credit agencies. The first three aircraft are to be delivered late this month, next month and in December. Despite high fuel prices, CAL has managed to keep fuel costs low through hedging. As a result, the carrier foresees solid growth for this year, and expects to post an after-tax profit of NT$ 3.1 billion for the year.
■ Chi Mei denies rumor
Chi Mei Group (奇美), whose founder was criticized by the Chinese state media for supposed pro-independence views, denied reports that it planned to close a plastics plant in eastern China after the government issues a ban on river shipments of a key raw material. China's decision this month to ban transportation of acrylonitrile on the Yangtze River and to impose a US$10 per tonne surcharge on ground shipments will force the company to raise prices or find ways to cut costs at the plant in Zhenjiang, a company official said. Acrylonitrile is a toxic raw material used to make acrylic rubber and fibers. "Chi Mei intends to continue the Zhenjiang operation even though China's environmental protection measures will increase our costs," the official said, denying a report in a Chinese-language newspaper that the plant may shut down.
■ NT dollar rises
The NT dollar strengthened for the first time in three days after Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc (MSCI) said it would include the nation's stocks in its global indexes, a step that will encourage overseas investors to buy local shares. Fund managers who control US$3 trillion use MSCI's indexes to gauge performance. Foreign investors will need to buy local currency to pay for their equity purchases. The NT rose NT$0.010 to close at NT$33.775 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$515.5 million.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”