Dollar reserves hit record high
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high of US$291.41 billion last month, the central bank said yesterday.
The end-June figure was US$1.34 billion higher from a month earlier, the central bank said in a statement.
The increase reflected a stronger euro and pound against the US dollar, the central bank said.
Power plant builds algae farm
One of Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) coal power plants will launch a new initiative that involves employing a pilot algae farm to offset its annual carbon dioxide emissions, a Taipower official said yesterday.
Chiu Tai-chuan (邱泰川), director of Taipower’s Ta-Lin Power Plant in Kaohsiung, said a miniature algae farm has been established inside the complex comprising a 10m² pool for micro-algae that is estimated to be capable of capturing 0.58 tonnes to 0.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
“If the total area used by micro-algae can be increased to 1 hectare, the carbon dioxide captured annually can be increased to between 58 tonnes and 90 tonnes,” Chiu said.
An evaluation conducted by the Taipower Research Institute four years ago showed that 1 hectare of trees could capture 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which is far lower in efficiency than the algae, Chiu said, adding that this was the main reason an algae farm had been chosen for the test run.
In addition to its carbon dioxide capturing capacity, the mature micro-algae is a very good raw material for cosmetics and health food, Chiu said.
Chrysler, Great Wall ink deal
Chrysler LLC, looking for foreign partnerships to help drive its business as US sales slump, yesterday announced a deal with China’s Great Wall Motor Co (長城汽車) to study sharing technology, components and distribution.
Chrysler, the smallest of the three major US automakers, is trying to expand sales in the fast-growing Chinese market and has a deal with China’s Chery Automobile Co (奇瑞汽車) to produce a low-cost model for sale under its Dodge brand.
Under the new agreement, Chrysler and Great Wall will look at ways to use each other’s distribution networks and component and technology capabilities, Chrysler said in a statement released in the US.
Great Wall, based in Baoding, a city west of Beijing, is best known as a producer of SUVs and trucks, but is expanding into cars.
Formosa restarts ethylene plant
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s only publicly traded oil refiner, restarted its No. 2 ethylene plant on Thursday after shutting it last Sunday because of a faulty compressor.
The company’s three ethylene plants in Mailiao are operating normally, spokesman Lin Keh-yen (林克彥) said yesterday.
Formosa Petrochemical has an annual capacity of 2.94 million tonnes of ethylene, including 1.04 million tonnes at the No. 2 plant, the company said on its Web site.
Chinatrust plans buyback
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), the nation’s fourth-biggest financial services company by market value, said it may buy back 84 million shares at between at between NT$22 and NT$26 each.
The buyback will start on Monday and end on Sept. 6, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
NT dollar slightly lower
The New Taiwan dollar dropped against the greenback on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.011 to close at NT$30.401. A total of US$824 million changed hands during the day’s trading.
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
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
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