SinoPac reports losses
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) yesterday reported after-tax net losses of NT$1.189 billion (US$38.8 million) in the first seven months of this year, or a loss of NT$0.17 per share, the company said in a statement.
The company’s long-term equity investments last month suffered NT$96 million in losses, of which, subsidiary Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) reported NT$158 million in profit, but SinoPac Securities (永豐金證券) and SinoPac Card Services (永豐信用卡) suffered losses of NT$$101 million and NT$20 million respectively, the statement said.
Bank SinoPac reported NT$1.64 billion in after-tax losses, or NT$0.36 per share, in the first seven months while SinoPac Securities’ net profits reached NT$5 million at the same period, or after-tax NT$0.004 per share.
Author predicts PRC downturn
The author of a controversial 2001 book titled The Coming Collapse of China, predicted on Thursday that the Beijing Olympics has accelerated the upside of China’s economy and that it will also accelerate the downside afterward.
“Chinese dream large, but their fear is even larger,” Gordon Chang (章家敦) told some 50 international journalists and academics at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.
With high inflation, the economy remains an especially difficult challenge in the future for China, and Beijing is due for a post-Olympic recession, Chang said.
He also said the next two to three years, maybe the next half-decade, is not a time for Taiwanese to invest in China, especially in China’s financial market.
Formosa raises PVC prices
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s largest maker of polyvinyl chloride, raised its benchmark PVC prices for domestic customers to record levels to reflect increased costs, the company said.
Prices rose by NT$1.5 per kilo last month, the Taipei-based company said on its Web site. PVC ingredients include ethylene, a petroleum derivative.
Benchmark crude oil prices in New York have risen 29 percent this year.
HP Taiwan MD steps down
Hewlett-Packard Taiwan managing director Jonathan Yang (楊人捷) has resigned for personal reasons and his position will be filled by Felix See (施志國), effective immediately, the company said in a statement yesterday.
See will also serve as vice president of HP Technology Solutions Group and the company’s Technology Solutions Group, which provides enterprise storage and systems, software and services to enterprise and public sector customers, the statement said.
See has held various business development and management positions including general manager of Sales, Marketing and Products for HP Technology Solutions Group in Hong Kong.
NT dollar takes a dive
The NT dollar fell yesterday, leading declines in Asian currencies this week, on speculation the central bank will seek a weaker exchange rate to aid exporters as the US economy slows.
The local currency capped its biggest weekly decline in two years after data showed the US economy grew slower than forecast in the second quarter and shrank in the final three months of last year.
“The central bank could turn its focus to help exporters now that the US outlook is not all that good,” said Forest Chen, chief economist in Taipei at Taiwan Securities Investment Advisory (台証證券投顧).
“Foreign investors are selling stocks because higher energy and labor costs are hurting profits at exporters,” he said.
The NT dollar fell NT$0.055 to close at NT$30.645 on the 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
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