■ Sluggish TAIEX gains slightly
Shares rose slightly yesterday on buying of select high-tech shares, although decliners heavily outnumbered gainers as overall market sentiment remained sluggish. The TAIEX rose 10.29 points, or 0.16 percent, to 6,241.94. Since hitting a 14-month intraday high of 6,401 on June 23, the local market has lost steam as many retail investors took to the sidelines. "Yesterday's buyers were today's losers; today's index was supported only by government funds buying tech shares," Andrew Teng (鄧安瀾), a sales manager at Taiwan International Securities (金鼎證券), said yesterday. Market heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) gained 0.4 percent to close at NT$55.10, while memorychip maker Nanya Technology Corp (聯電) ended at NT$24.65, up 0.6 percent.
■ Packager blames loss on fire
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光半導體), the world's biggest packager of semiconductors, said it expects to post a loss of NT$8 billion (US$253 million) to NT$9 billion in the second quarter because of a factory fire. The company's plant in northern Taiwan was damaged on May 1 by a fire that may have been caused by a boiler explosion. Insurance will cover NT$4 billion of losses from the incident, said Freddie Liu (劉思亮), a spokesman for the Kaohsiung-based company. "We'll book all the losses from the fire in the second quarter. Asset write-down will total between NT$12 billion and NT$13 billion," Liu said yesterday. The company had a net loss of NT$128 million in the first quarter as demand for chips used in personal computers and mobile phones fell. Advanced Semiconductor Engineering expects earnings to improve in the third quarter, as demand for chips used in PCs, consumer electronics and communications products picks up, Liu said, without offering a forecast.
■ AIG arranges financing
American International Group Inc (AIG), the world's largest insurer, hired five banks to arrange NT$10 billion (US$317 million) of financing for its credit-card business in Taiwan. BNP Paribas SA, Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), Calyon, Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) and Standard Chartered Plc were picked to arrange the deal for the Taipei-based AIG Credit Card Co (Taiwan) Ltd, the banks said in a statement. The financing includes NT$4 billion in revolving credit and a NT$6 billion guarantee to back sales of commercial paper.
■ NT dollar remains weak
The New Taiwan dollar remained weak against its US counterpart yesterday, dropping NT$0.008 to close at NT$31.618 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$974 million, down from US$1.25 billion the previous day.
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