■ Powerchip ups Macronix stake
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Taiwan's biggest memory-chip maker, raised its stake in Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) to 2.79 percent to become the company's biggest institutional investor.
The chipmaker bought a 1.4 percent stake in Macronix for NT$377 million (US$11.5 million) last month, Powerchip said yesterday in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The move came after Powerchip said in June that it bought a wafer plant from Macronix for NT$5.3 billion and the companies would cooperate in advanced technology, including production of flash memory chips. The factory is located in Hsinchu, where Powerchip and Macronix are based.
The company bought 42.05 million Macronix shares at an average price of NT$8.96 each between July 4 and July 31 for investment purposes, the statement said, without providing details.
■ FSC mulls bank relaxation
Banks affiliated with financial groups may soon be able to acquire rivals or other financial holding companies alone, instead of through parent financial holding firms as current practice requires, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
The commission is mulling whether to relax the investment restrictions.
The move may facilitate consolidation of the nation's crowded banking sector.
The planned relaxation aims to equalize the status of banks under the umbrella of financial holding firms to that of stand-alone banks as well as securities houses and insurance company affiliates, commission spokesperson Susan Chang (張秀蓮) said.
Currently, financial groups' bank affiliates are not allowed to invest in other financial institutions while their standalone rivals are free to do so.
The relaxation may enable large bank affiliates of financial groups to acquire smaller-scale financial holding firms. Chang did not deny the possibility, saying only that all investment plans were subject to regulator's review and approval.
■ Bonds rise again
Taiwan's 10-year bonds rose for a second day on speculation a decline in local stocks lured investors to government debt.
"As the economy slows, the mood is for investors to be bullish on bonds," said Liao Yu-ping, a fixed-income trader at Grand Cathay Securities Corp (大華證券) in Taipei, a unit of Taiwan's eighth-largest financial firm. "Money flowed from the market into bonds."
The yield on the benchmark 1.75 percent bond due in March 2016 fell 2.4 basis points, or 0.024 percentage points, to 2.075 percent as of 5pm in Taipei, according to Gretai Securities Market, Taiwan's biggest exchange for bonds. The price rose 0.2071, or NT$207.1 per NT$100,000 face amount, to 97.1747.
■ CEPD helps yacht builders
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) decided on Monday to earmark NT$450 million (US$13.74 million) to improve facilities at two docks in Kaohsiung Harbor to help Taiwan's yacht-building industry enhance its competitiveness in the world market.
Taiwan now ranks the fifth in the world in terms of yacht-building -- after Italy, the US, the Netherlands and the UK.
According to the council, Taiwan's yacht-building industry had its heyday in 1985 when it captured 94.1 percent of the market in the US. After that, the number of yachts built each year had dropped from 700 to 228 by 1994.
■ NT loses on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar weakened against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.062 to close at NT$32.818.
A total of US$684 million changed hands during the 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
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
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
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