UMC says sales fall
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second largest contract microchip maker, said yesterday its sales last month fell 19.6 percent to NT$7.14 billion (US$225.2 million) from December.
Last month's sales also marked a 13.9 percent decline year-on-year, the company said in a statement.
Its net profit last year more than doubled to NT$31.84 billion (US$1.0 billion) from NT$14.02 billion in 2003 as sales rose to NT$117.31 billion from NT$84.86 billion.
UMC had said earlier it expected the market to pick up from the second half of this year after reporting a slowdown in the three months to December.
Taiwan to raise interest rates
Taiwan's Central Bank of China (CBC) might follow the US by raising key interest rates in late March, probably within a range of between a quarter percentage point and an eighth percentage point, market watchers said Thursday.
Their comment came after the US Federal Reserve announced a fresh interest rate hike of a quarter percentage point a day earlier, pushing up its key interest rates to an average level of 2.5 percent.
The market analysts predicted that the CBC might follow in the footsteps of the US after holding a meeting of its board of directors and supervisors in late March, when the Fed is expected to raise its rates by another one quarter percentage point.
The CBC will be more likely to increase rates by 0.125 percentage points at the end of next month and is expected to keep on doing so piecemeal in the future, they said, adding that power and water rate increases and possible fallout in the economy are factors that could contribute changes to the bank's moves.
Nokia wins Far EasTone contract
Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest mobile-phone maker, won an order to expand the faster wireless network of Taiwan's second-biggest mobile-phone operator, Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信).
Nokia will expand the operator's network using the so-called wideband code-division multiple access technology, allowing faster data speeds, the Espoo, Finland-based company said in an e-mailed release on Thursday.
Foreign reserves balloon
Taiwan's foreign-currency reserves, the third-highest in the world, rose last month to a record US$243 billion, boosted by net foreign capital inflows and investment returns, the central bank said in a statement today.
The reserves, which trail those of Japan and China, rose for a 43rd month from US$242 billion in December, according to the Central Bank of China.
Financial sector value increases
The production value of the nation's financial sector increased to 11.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2003, the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) reported yesterday.
The ratio is a similar level to those of Hong Kong and Singapore, two of the world's key financial centers, CEPD officials said, adding that in an effort to balance the country's finances, the government imposed a reform package in April 2003.
Stressing that financial reform is a long-term goal of the government to bolster Taiwan's economic development, CEPD officials said that the reform has showed initial improvement.
NT dollar climbs
The New Taiwan dollar moved up against its US counterpart on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, gaining NT$0.016 to close at NT$31.623.
A total of US$741 million changed hands.
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
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
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