■ TAIEX closes lower
Shares fell yesterday, with investors taking profits after global oil prices hit new highs. The TAIEX fell 10.63 points, or 0.16 percent, to 6,989.46, on turnover of NT$110.12 billion (US$3.39 billion). Decliners led gainers 522 to 377, with 104 stocks unchanged. The key index had risen nearly 10 percent from March 23 to finish at 7,000.09 on Monday, its highest closing level since March 4, 2004. That prompted investors to sell shares, especially after oil prices in the US rose to US$70.40 a barrel overnight, a record closing high. Tourism-related companies were the worst performers, with the subindex losing 2.5 percent.
■ Taisugar announces changes
The chairman of state-owned enterprise Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖), Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲), said yesterday that seven divisions of the corporation will be privatized next year, except the Sugar Business Division and company assets. Yu added that Taisugar will establish an asset management holding corporation after the divisions privatization. Taisugar has eight divisions and owns four sugar factories (located in Nanjing, Shanhua, Beigang, and Huwei) with a total milling capacity of 13,000 tonnes per day, and a sugar refinery in Hsiaokang with a melting capacity of 1,200 tonnes per day.
■ FAT to fly fresh fish to Japan
Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT, 遠東) will open an all-cargo air link between Palau and Japan via Taipei to transport the north Pacific nation's fresh marine catches to Japan. FAT will use a Boeing 757-200 all-cargo aircraft with a maximum cargo capacity of 26 metric tons to ply the route, with the first flight taking off from Taipei to Palau today, FAT announced yesterday. After being loaded with cargo, the inaugural flight will return to Taipei today, where the cargo will be transferred to flights destined for Japan, according to FAT. Palau's fresh marine catch is usually shipped to Japan via Guam, so the new route provides more flights to Japan and will serve Palauan fishery operators better with larger cargo loads and bigger transportation flexibility, FAT executives said.
■ Powerchip plans expansion
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), the nation's largest memory-chip maker, plans to expand into the solar-energy industry by investing in Wafer Works Corp (合晶科技), the Commercial Times said, without saying where it obtained the information. Powerchip has been buying Wafer Works shares on the open market and plans to seek a seat on the company's board, the newspaper said yesterday. Taoyuan-based Wafer Works, which makes and sells semiconductor-related products, owns a solar-cell plant in China, according to the report.
■ CMC to put DVD prices up
CMC Magnetics Corp (中環), the world's biggest maker of recordable discs used in DVD players, plans to raise the prices of its recordable DVD discs in the third quarter because of rising demand, the Economic Daily News said, citing chairman Bob Wong (翁明顯). The supply of recordable discs used in DVD players is expected to fall short in the third quarter, the newspaper said, quoting Wong. New prices will be decided next month, according to the report.
■ NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan traded lower against its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.026 to close at NT$32.486 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$898 million.
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