■AVIATION
Air Asia suspends visit
AirAsia Bhd representatives have decided to suspend a planned visit to cash-strapped Far Eastern Air Transport Co (FAT, 遠東航空) scheduled from tomorrow to Thursday because of “unpredictable factors,” FAT said in a stock exchange filing on Friday. The company said it regretted any investment uncertainty generated by a spate of negative news that posed more downside risks to potential investors, the filing said. FAT said last week that AirAsia of Malaysia and Jetstar Asia Airways Private Ltd of Singapore had expressed interest in investing in FAT. But the company had not received any further information from Jetstar thus far, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing company sources.
■REAL ESTATE
Housing price hikes slowing
Housing market conditions in the greater Taipei area have been increasingly returning to normal since late last month, as the general public is now more reserved about purchasing houses following warnings by experts, a real estate broker said yesterday. The most recent wave of housing price hikes has been showing signs of abating since late last month, Sinyi Real Estate Inc (信義房屋) said. Statistics compiled by the company showed that the value of house deals in Taipei City fell by 15 percent last month as compared with the March level, although the figure still marks a nearly 40 percent growth year-on-year.
■INVESTMENT
No timetable on China cap
Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), economics minister-designate, would not offer a timetable on Friday for removing restrictions on China-bound investment by Taiwanese firms, but said the incoming Cabinet would address the issue as soon as possible after its inauguration on May 20. Investment in China is currently limited to up to 40 percent of their net worth. Yiin said that complementary measures were required for relaxing the China-bound investment cap, which he said would be eased step by step. He said the new Cabinet would give overall consideration to the specific characteristics of different business sectors when reviewing the measure.
■TRADE
Free zone business booming
Business in Taiwan’s free trade port and air cargo zones grew threefold last year to NT$62.85 billion (US$2.06 billion), an indication of the dynamism of the duty free zones, the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) reported on Friday. The strong growth continued in the first quarter of this year, with free trade zones totaling NT$23 billion in sales, a 150 percent increase year-on-year, CEPD statistics showed. CEPD Vice Chairman Thomas Yeh (葉明峰), who doubles as the executive secretary of a free trade zone coordination panel under the council, said the rapid growth is a sign that operations in the country’s port free trade zones are set to expand after a two-year trial period.
■ELECTRONICS
Samsung settles disputes
Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s biggest maker of computer memory chips, settled patent disputes over the dynamic random access memory chips with Renesas Technology Corp, a joint venture of Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp and Hitachi Ltd. Notices of the agreement were filed in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, and with the US International Trade Commission in Washington. The agreement was reached on April 25, court documents said. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
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