■ Acer to reduce BenQ stake
Acer Inc, the world's fourth-largest branded personal computer vendor, said yesterday that it plans to release 50 million shares in handset maker BenQ Corp (明基) through global depository receipts (GDR). After the sale, Acer's stake in BenQ will be reduced to about five percent from the current 7.2 percent to become the second largest shareholder, next to flat panel display maker AU Optronics Corp's (友達光電) 5.2 percent, an Acer official said. However, no timetable for the sale has been set, the official said. Last December, Acer sold 50 million BenQ shares via a GDR issue. BenQ, a supplier of computer, communications and consumer electronics products, acquired Siemens' mobile phone handset business last year, making itself the world's fourth-largest mobile handset maker and the leader in the greater China region.
■ CPC discovers gas
Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) has discovered undersea natural gas off the coast of Kaohsiung and is expected to begin mass production of gas from the field beginning 2009, CPC officials said yesterday. The CPC is drilling 10 wells in an area about 100km from Kaohsiung to explore the gas field, which is assessed to contain enough for commercial exploration for 10 years, said Lee Tsung-lung (李宗龍), a deputy CEO of the CPC's Natural Gas Division. The CPC will also build a 120km undersea pipeline to convey the natural gas to a refinery in Yungan (永安) in Kaohsiung County, Lee said. AT present CPC imports liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Indonesia and Malaysia to meet domestic demand. CPC plans to almost triple its LNG import capacity by 2020 to meet rising demand for the fuel, CPC vice president Lin Cheng-hsiung (林正雄) said yesterday. The state-run company will have the facilities to receive 21 million tonnes of LNG by the end of the next decade, Lin said. CPC plans to expand annual capacity of the Yungan terminal, the only one in Taiwan, to 12 million tonnes, Lin said. CPC will also expand a second terminal the company is building in Taichung harbor, which is due to start operations in 2008 and projected to reach an annual capacity of 3 million tonnes in 2010, Lin said. Taiwan aims to increase natural gas consumption to 16 million tonnes a year by 2020 to cut emissions of so-called greenhouse gases, since the fuel produces less pollution than coal and oil.
■ VIA wins Samsung contract
VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子), the nation's biggest maker of personal computer chipsets, secured a contract to make computer chips for Samsung Electronics Co, the Chinese-language Commercial Times said, without saying where it got the information. The chips are for Samsung's scaled-down notebook computers, which are expected to roll out in the market in the second half of this year, the newspaper said. It didn't say how much the order is worth. Samsung and rivals such as Intel Corp are planning to sell scaled-down laptop computers to get customers to buy an additional machine. Boosted by the news, shares of VIA rose by the 7 percent daily limit to close at NT$28.7 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
■ NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.021 to close at NT$32.460. A total of US$860 million changed hands during the day's trading.
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