■ Chinatrust in the black
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) was back in the black after its monthly financial result last month, as its banking arm's reserve expenses covering consumer bad debt decreased, the company said yesterday.
The company posted earnings of NT$16 million (US$486,000) last month alone, as monthly bad loan reserves costs fell to NT$2.8 billion, down by NT$570 million sequentially, which was a drop for the fifth month in a row, it said.
For the first eight months of the year, the company incurred a deficit of NT$2.79 billion, or a loss of NT$0.49 per share, after booking a provisional expense of NT$30.52 billion amid a storm over consumer credit abuse, it added.
■ Powerchip firms on venture talk
Shares for Powerchip Semicon-ductor Corp (力晶半導體) advanced 2.1 percent to NT$22.3 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, after expectations that the nation's top computer chipmaker may form a venture with Elpida Memory Inc, Japan's biggest memory chipmaker.
Elpida chief executive officer Yukio Sakamoto has visited Taiwan recently, which strengthened the speculation.
Elpida may form the venture to produce memory chips at its Taiwanese factory to cut costs, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported last Saturday.
The venture would take over an existing Powerchip plant in central Taiwan, the Nihon Keizai said. The companies may set up the venture with initial capital of about NT$10 billion, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported last Saturday.
■ Want Want probed over hospital
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is investigating whether Tsai Yen-ming (蔡衍明), CEO of Want Want Group (旺旺集團), has breached regulations on China-bound investment. As one of the major shareholders of the Singaporean holding company, Tsai is subject to the rule that Taiwanese individuals must not invest more than NT$80 million in China.
Want Want opened a hospital in Hunan Province at the end of last year. It reportedly controls 70 percent of the 700 million yuan (US$88 million) project.
The ministry's Investment Commission said a preliminary investigation had established that Tsai might have revoked his household registration in Taiwan, which would free him from regulations in the Statute Governing Relations between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例).
However, if he still resided in Taiwan when the investment was made, the commission would issue fines to a maximum of NT$25 million, according to a CNA report.
■ Hsu wants retirees in Tainan
The Tainan City Government is thinking of building a "model retirement village" to attract retirees who want to enjoy life at an easier tempo.
Tainan Mayor Hsu Tien-tsai (許添財) told reporters yesterday that the city government has formed an inter-departmental task force to work out a plan that would encourage people from northern Taiwan to spend their retirement in Tainan.
Citing the advantages of living in the city, Hsu said property in Tainan is less expensive, while the cost of living is also cheaper than northern Taiwan.
Hsu said the city government would seek assistance from the Ministry of the Interior to acquire land to build the village, which would consist of apartment blocks to accommodate the elderly. He said the private sector would be invited to participate in the project.
■ NT dollar loses ground
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, falling NT$0.040 to close at NT$32.920 on a turnover of US$696 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