UMC sales rise 3.78 percent
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) said yesterday its sales rose 3.78 percent last month to NT$10.43 billion (US$316 million) from NT$10.05 billion in July.
Last month's sales were up 10.8 percent year-on-year, the world's second largest contract microchip manufacturer said.
It said sales for the first eight months of the year amounted to NT$68.61 billion, down 0.21 percent from the year-earlier period, UMC said.
Sales for the second quarter totaled NT$25.10 billion, up from NT$23.03 billion in the preceding quarter but down from NT$25.75 billion a year earlier.
TAIFEX inks MOU abroad
The Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation with the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) on Thursday in Montreux, Switzerland, a TAIFEX official announced yesterday.
The memorandum, inked by TAIFEX chairman Yeh Ching-cheng (葉景成) and CBOE chairman William Brodsky, marked a further step in TAIFEX's strategic cooperation with its foreign counterparts and the nation's futures market internationalization.
Noting that CBOE is one of the world's largest options exchanges, Yeh said its successful experience in business expansion is worthy of being assimilated by TAIFEX in developing new products. He predicted that the memorandum would bring fruitful cooperation results for the two exchanges.
Central bank auctions CDs
The nation's central bank yesterday auctioned off NT$100 billion in certificates of deposit (CD) that drew a total bidding of NT$346.3 billion, the bank said in a statement posted on its Web site.
The auction ratio was 28.88 percent and the weighted average interest rate was 2.463 percent for the securities sold yesterday, the statement said.
Also yesterday, the central bank sold NT$50.1 billion 30-day CDs and negotiable CDs at a fixed rate of 1.92 percent, and offered NT$30 billion 91-day CDs and negotiable certificates of deposit at 1.99 percent, the bank said in another statement.
The central bank said a total of NT$231.8 billion in CDs had matured between Friday last week and yesterday, which it has replaced with NT$234.8 billion in new short-term debt in order to drain excess funds from the nation's money market.
Shares little changed
Shares closed little changed yesterday after early gains fueled by Wall Street's rise on optimism for an interest rate cut were offset by regional weakness, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed up 1.0 point or 0.01 percent at 9,018.08, on turnover of NT$135.18 billion (US$4.10 billion).
For the week to yesterday, the weighted index closed up 35.92 points or 0.4 percent following a 3.36 percent increase one week earlier.
The market largely ignored Chinese President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) warning that Taiwan's plan to hold a referendum on UN membership had propelled the region into a "possibly dangerous period."
But sentiment in late trade was dampened by China's sluggish showing after the People's Bank of China said it would raise the commercial bank reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points.
On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar weakened NT$0.009 to close at NT$32.05 against its US counterpart.
Turnover was US$529 million, down from US$665 million the previous day, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
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