Gas, diesel prices cut
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) announced yesterday that it would cut wholesale gasoline and diesel prices by NT$0.2 per liter as of this morning.
The adjusted retail price for 98-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$28, while 95-octane gasoline will cost NT$26.5, 92-octane gasoline will cost NT$25.8 and top-grade diesel oil will be NT$22.7 per liter, the company said in a statement yesterday.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said it would lower its prices to match CPC Taiwan's, effective 10pm yesterday.
Chi Mei links with Neurok
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation's second-largest maker of flat-panel displays, said it has formed a venture with Neurok Optics, LLC to make game-console screens that display three-dimensional images.
The venture, based in San Diego, California, will begin shipping its products in May, Chi Mei said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The Tainan-based panel maker and Neurok each hold 50 percent of the venture.
The statement didn't say how much the companies were investing in the venture.
BNP Paribas gets green light
BNP Paribas has obtained approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to issue the second batch of foreign currency-denominated bonds in the nation's offshore bond exchange, the Formosa Bond market, the commission said yesterday.
This batch of bond could amount to as high as A$500 million (US$386 million) with an indefinite date for listing, the FSC said.
"There have been several foreign banks interested in issuing the third batch of bonds and so on that came and talked to market regulators," said Sam Chang (張振山), a deputy director at the Securities and Futures Bureau.
Taiwan's first foreign currency-denominated bond, worth US$250 million, was issued by Deutsche Bank and hit the market on Nov. 1 last year.
Between Nov. 1 and last Tuesday, outright trading amounted to US$24.56 million while conditional trading totaled US$553.79 million, the commission said.
HTC's rating raised
High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電), the world's largest maker of mobile phones using Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, was upgraded to ``neutral'' by Credit Suisse Group, which cited limited downside for the stock.
HTC shares rose 4.8 percent to close at NT$504 (US$15.24). The stock fell 25 percent this year as of yesterday's close, lagging behind a 0.6 percent decline in the TAIEX.
"We believe the current share price is already pricing in a rather bearish scenario and does not leave significant downside potential," Credit Suisse analysts Felix Rusli and Vivian Jang wrote in a report yesterday.
The analysts, who raised the rating from "underperform," kept the 12-month price target at NT$500, adding that "The chance of a cash distribution to shareholders is higher now than in the past. This is likely to lend an additional support to the share price."
ChipMOS buys unit's shares
ChipMOS Technologies Ltd (南茂科技), a Hsinchu-based packager and tester of microchips, said it will buy all of its ChipMOS Taiwan unit's shares owned by Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密工業) for US$191 million.
ChipMOS will also issue 12.2 million of its own shares to Siliconware Precision for about US$76 million, the firm said in a statement yesterday. The deal gives Siliconware Precision a 14.7 percent stake in ChipMOS, the firm said.
Siliconware Precision is the country's second-largest supplier of semiconductor packaging and testing services.
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