■ Yang Ming to invest in China
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) plans to invest US$33 million to set up a wholly owned logistics company in Shanghai, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
The money will be used for rent and development expenses, said David Liu (劉吉雄), spokesman for the nation's second-largest container shipping firm by revenue.
Yang Ming Marine plans to lease land development rights from the Shanghai city government for 50 years, but the investment is still pending approval from the Taiwanese government, Liu said.
``This would be the first time we would invest in China directly,'' he said.
The new company, called Ming-Jiang (Shanghai) International Logistics Ltd (明江上海國際物流), will provide warehousing and other logistics services. Yang Ming Marine chose the area because of its proximity to Shanghai's airport and the sea, Liu said.
■ Hon Hai drops libel claim
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a maker of iPods for Apple Computer Inc, dropped a libel claim against two Chinese journalists and their newspaper out of respect for their journalistic responsibility of performing investigations of companies, Hon Hai and China Business News said in a joint statement to the Taiwan stock exchange on Sunday.
The company, run by Terry Gou (郭台銘), Taiwan's second-richest man, pledged earlier this month to hire more workers and build dormitories in China after Apple said some labor practices at Hon Hai's factories violated its code of conduct.
Apple "has been working behind the scenes to help resolve the dispute" between Hon Hai and China Business News and its journalists, said Jill Tan, a spokeswoman for the Cupertino, California-based company.
Last month, Hongfujin Precision Industry Co (鴻富錦精密工業), a unit of Hon Hai, cut its libel claim against China Business News reporters Wang You and Weng Bao to 1 yuan (US$0.13), down from 30 million yuan in July. The lawsuit was originally filed with the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court over an article about working conditions at one of the unit's factories in Shenzhen.
■ China Steel sales climb
China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan's largest steelmaker, said sales rose 5.5 percent last month from the level a year earlier.
Revenue rose to NT$16 billion (US$487 million), the Kaohsiung-based company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. That also compares with NT$15.1 billion in July. Pretax profit last month increased 8.1 percent from a year earlier to NT$5.16 billion, the company said.
■ CAL starts Houston cargo flights
China Airlines (華航), Taiwan's largest carrier, is scheduled to open an all-cargo flight service between Taipei and Houston, Texas in the US on Sept. 30, the company said yesterday.
Boeing 747-400F aircraft will be commissioned to fly from Taipei two times per week, China Airlines said, noting that Houston will be the 11th destination in the North America market for China Airlines' "fixed point" all-cargo flight services.
Houston is the fourth-largest US city and has seen a recent boom in the development of industrial sectors like petroleum, medical treatment and pharmaceuticals, aviation and information technology.
China Airlines will be the first Asian air company opening direct cargo flights to Houston.
■ NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.135 to close at NT$32.749. Turnover reached US$667 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
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