■ TAIEX gains on phone stocks
Shares rose slightly yesterday as mobile phone stocks attracted buying on solid revenue figures for last month. The TAIEX gained 8.74 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,149.88, on turnover of NT$64.22 billion (US$1.97 billion). Arima Communications Corp (華冠通訊), whose clients include Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd, rose by the daily maximum of 7 percent to NT$15.65 after the company said Wednesday its revenue for last month rose 72 percent from the same month last year to NT$2.03 billion (US$62.05 million).
Hopes for stronger handset shipment in the next few months also spurred strong buying in Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊), Taiwan's second-largest handset maker by shipments. The stock rose 3.9 percent at NT$107.50.
■ BenQ secures EU approval
BenQ Corp (明基) secured EU antitrust approval to take over Siemens AG's unprofitable mobile-phone unit.
Siemens, Germany's largest engineering company, on June 7 said it will pull out of the mobile-phone industry after two decades and that BenQ will take over the business and its 7,000 employees. The acquisition will make BenQ the world's fifth-biggest handset maker.
"After the proposed merger BenQ will continue to face competition from strong, well-established competitors" in Europe such as Nokia Oyj, the European Commission, the 25-nation EU's antitrust regulator in Brussels, said.
■ NT dollar trades lower
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.103 to close at NT$32.746. Turnover was US$745.5 million, down from US$1.16 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