■SHIPPING
Eergreen staying in south
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Asia’s largest container shipper, last night denied a report that it would not renew a lease for a dock at Kaohsiung Port. The Chinese-language Commercial Times said yesterday that Evergreen was planning to follow Danish shipper AP Moeller-Maersk A/S, which earlier this month decided to stop leasing a dock in Kaohsiung a year earlier than scheduled. The report also said Evergreen might halt operations in Kaohsiung and instead launch services at a container wharf at Taipei Port, which is partly invested by the container shipping firm.
■STOCK EXCHANGES
Taiwan to host global meet
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE, 台灣證交所) has won the right to host the 52nd World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) Annual Conference in 2012 to promote cooperation among regulated exchanges worldwide, a TWSE executive said on Friday. To boost its international profile, TWSE will invite leaders from 103 stock, futures and options exchanges around the world with connections to the WFE to attend the meeting, the executive said.
■CURRENCY
Japan to limit margin trade
Japan’s Financial Services Agency said it planned to limit foreign exchange margin trades to 25 times the amount of cash used for transactions by 2011. An initial limit of 50-to-1 will be set as early as next year and lowered to 25 the next year, the agency said on its Web site on Friday.
■HONG KONG
Economy to recover: official
Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang (曾俊華) said in an e-mailed statement yesterday that the territory’s economy could recover this year, reversing a forecast of a 6.5 percent contraction. Hong Kong announced US$2.2 billion in tax cuts, fee waivers and spending to shield the public from a recession.
■TRADE
Guangdong trade plunges
Guangdong Province, a manufacturing hub heavily dependent on exports, reported an 18.1 percent year-on-year drop in foreign trade last month, China’s Xinhua News Agency said, citing the provincial statistics bureau. However, the total of US$47.14 billion represented a 5.2 percent rise from March, indicating signs of a recovery, Xinhua said. The province attracted US$1.64 billion in foreign direct investment, up 7.2 percent from a year earlier, it said.
■TELECOMS
Judge rules against Qwest
A federal judge has approved a class-action settlement of Qwest shareholders’ claims against former executives of the telecommunications company. An order signed on Wednesday approves a US$45 million settlement of claims against former Qwest Communications International Inc CEO Joe Nacchio and former chief financial officer Robert Woodruff. The order makes effective an earlier US$400 million settlement with Qwest.
■NETWORKING
Cisco warns on earnings
US computer networking gear maker Cisco Systems Inc said on Friday that earnings per share in the current quarter would be US$0.02 to US$0.03 lower owing to a tax-related charge. Cisco said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit changes the company’s tax treatment of certain stock option expenses before 2005. In the filing, Cisco said it would record a charge of US$130 million in the quarter.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last