TAIEX, share prices down
Share prices closed lower yesterday, with the TAIEX falling 56.29 points, or 0.73 percent, to close at 7,608.44.
Trying to build on gains on Wall Street overnight, the bourse opened higher at 7,718.17 and rose to 7,743.41 before losing steam to close at the day’s low. Most other major markets around Asia were also down. Market turnover totaled NT$109.96 billion (US$16.1 billion).
Foreign investors and Chinese qualified domestic institutional investors were net sellers of NT$9.91 billion in shares.
Tariff for LCDs cut to zero
The legislature passed a draft amendment yesterday to cut import tariffs for LCDs from 10 percent to zero, in a move aimed at maintaining the country’s market share in the global LCD market.
The Ministry of Finance said that the import tariff cut for LCDs would help Taiwan, through the Information Technology Agreement under the WTO, to request other countries to also lower their import tariffs for LCDs.
Import tariffs of Electro-Phoretic Displays (EPD) for e-book readers, which currently stands at 2.5 percent, will also be eliminated to foster the development of the industry.
Tariffs for interchangeable lenses used in single-lens cameras will also be lowered to zero from the current 5 percent, as digital cameras are already given duty-free access.
Auto parts for ambulances, hybrid buses, electric buses and vehicles to transport physically disabled people will also be granted duty-free entry to Taiwan’s market, the ministry said.
Delta Electronics set to expand
Delta Electronics (Thailand) PCL, the Thai unit of Taiwan’s Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), plans to invest as much as US$30 million this year to expand capacity in Slovakia, India and Thailand, company president Henry Shieh said.
The company invested between US$15 million and US$20 million last year, he told reporters yesterday in Bangkok.
Delta maintained its sales target at about US$1 billion for this year.
Delta yesterday reported a 75 percent jump in first-quarter net income.
Local treats to go global
To bring more Taiwanese delicacies to the global market, the government plans to spend NT$1.1 billion over four years to assist local restaurants in building 20 international brands, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said on Monday.
The plan aims to help domestic restaurant operators open 3,500 stores in Taiwan and worldwide, create 10,000 job opportunities and boost private investment by NT$2 billion, according to the MOEA’s Department of Commerce.
The department said that 30 international brands have been established by Taiwanese restaurant operators to date and the MOEA would help increase the number of brands to 50 by 2013.
A team has been set up within the MOEA to internationalize Taiwanese delicacies, it added.
NT dollar slide continues
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday slid by the most in 13 months as the central bank intervened in the market in the final minute of trading to curb gains that could hurt exports.
The local currency weakened 0.7 percent to NT$31.829 versus the greenback as of the 4pm close of trading, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The slide was the biggest since April 8 last year.
The NT dollar erased an advance of as much as 0.5 percent on intervention, according to two traders familiar with the central bank’s operations who asked not to be identified.
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
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