TAIEX drops on forex fears
The benchmark TAIEX closed 0.48 percent lower yesterday amid lingering fears that a strengthening local currency could undermine the nation’s global competitiveness, dealers said.
The TAIEX fell 39.73 points to 8,244.19, after moving between 8,232.02 and 8,309.91, on turnover of NT$114.44 billion (US$3.72 billion).
The market opened up 0.27 percent and moved to the day’s high before selling emerged, focusing on flat panel display makers, to reverse early gains on currency concerns. Investors also pocketed recent profit by unloading select old economy stocks and financial shares, dealers said.
A total of 2,565 stocks closed down and 1,227 up, with 293 unchanged.
First Leasing sells jets
First Financial Holding Ltd (第一金控) said its affiliate First Leasing Ltd’s (一銀租賃) board has decided to sell two Boeing 747-400 aircraft to China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) for a total of NT$2.95 billion, according to a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
First Financial reported unaudited nine-month net income rose to NT$5.06 billion from NT$4.78 billion a year ago, the Taipei-based company said in a separate statement to the stock exchange.
Separately, China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) reported yesterday that its unaudited net income reached NT$5.77 billion for the first nine months of the year, while Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) said its unaudited net income totaled NT$1.61 billion in the same period.
Elpida plans R&D center
Elpida Memory Inc, a Japanese-based chipmaker, is planning to set up an R&D center in Taiwan, a Ministry of Economic Affairs official said on Thursday.
Wu Ming-chi (吳明機), director of the Department of Industrial -Technology under the ministry, said Elpida is likely to invest more than US$100 million to establish the DRAM chip development center.
Wu said he has held preliminary talks with the Japanese company regarding the investment, but the plan still needs to be finalized.
Toshiba, Wistron settle suit
Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp settled a patent-infringement fight with contract manufacturer Wistron Corp (緯創) over technology used in notebook computers, legal filings show.
Each agreed to license the other’s patents, and Wistron will make a payment of an unspecified amount to Tokyo-based Toshiba, according to a redacted copy of the settlement agreement filed with the US International Trade Commission in Washington. The companies also submitted a filing seeking dismissal of a civil suit in federal court in California.
Employees slam Hon Hai
IT firm Foxconn (富士康), also known as Hon Hai (鴻海) in Taiwan, faces renewed pressure over conditions at its factories after Chinese media said yesterday it had been accused of forcing staff in China to work excessive overtime while exploiting interns.
The results of a survey of employees at Foxconn come just months after a spate of suicides at the Taiwan company’s plants in China, including 10 at its Shenzhen facility which employs an estimated 400,000 workers.
Researchers questioned 1,736 workers at plants in nine cities and found they worked an average 83.2 hours of overtime a month, more than twice the maximum 36 hours allowed under Chinese law, the China Business News said.
Workers also claimed Foxconn skimped on overtime payments, forced interns to work more than eight hours a day and provided inadequate medical check-ups for employees exposed to poisonous and harmful substances, it said.
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