New presidents named
Three subsidiaries of the Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the nation's biggest business conglomerate, yesterday appointed new presidents to take the helms of the companies, effective yesterday.
In separate filings to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said executive vice president Su Chi-yi (蘇啟邑) has taken over the president position from Wilfred Wang (王文潮), who is also chairman of the company.
Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭), Nan Ya Plastics Corp's (南亞塑膠) executive vice president has been promoted to president, taking over the position from chairman Wu Chin-jen (吳欽仁).
Formosa Chemical and Fiber Corp (台化) chairman Wong Wen-yuan (王文淵) has handed his president position to vice president Hong Fu-yuan (洪福源), the filing said.
The new appointments showed the group is handing management of the companies to professional managers from chairman Wang Yung-ching's (王永慶) family to enhance corporate efficiency, a company official said.
Aeon to liquidate Taiwan unit
Aeon Co, Japan's second-biggest retailer, said it will liquidate its wholly owned unit in Taiwan, shifting its focus to China.
The subsidiary, which operated one store, generated sales of NT$1.4 billion (US$43.2 million) last business year, Aeon said in a release yesterday. The liquidation will have no impact on its earnings for the current fiscal year, the parent company said.
Aeon, facing stagnant sales growth in Japan, plans to develop shopping centers in China around its flagship Jusco stores to attract customers and compete with Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Carrefour SA.
CPC to restart processing plant
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) plans to restart a fire-damaged crude processing unit within four weeks, a company official said.
The facility in southern Taiwan has been shut since Oct. 26, when a pump leak caused a fire.
The company, based in Taipei, has three refineries with a total capacity of 720,000 barrels a day. CPC closed a 50,000 barrel-a-day unit in 2005 permanently because of local residents' concern over pollution. It controls about 75 percent of Taiwan's gasoline and diesel markets.
Flight fuel surcharge to increase
The fuel surcharge on air tickets issued after Nov. 15 will be increased, the Civil Aeronautics Administration announced on Thursday. The fuel surcharge for short-haul flights -- flights from Taipei to Asian destinations -- will be increased by US$2.5 per sector to US$20.
The surcharge for long-haul flights, including those to Australia and New Zealand, will increase by US$6.5 per sector to US$52 per ticket.
The rate increases reflect rising oil prices, the administration said.
Citic and Bear Stearns link up
China's Citic Securities Co (中信證券) said yesterday its board has approved an alliance with US investment bank Bear Stearns Cos that gives the companies cross-ownership of each other.
The transaction is still pending approval from Chinese and US regulators, China's largest securities firm said in a statement.
Bear Stearns and Citic Securities last month agreed in principle to invest about US$1 billion in each other for minority stakes that could be expanded. They will also operate a 50-50 joint venture in Hong Kong to offer capital market services across Asia.
The investment is the biggest of its kind between a US and Chinese financial institution and highlights China's increasing strength in global financial markets.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by