TAIEX bounces back
The TAIEX rebounded yesterday after US President Barack Obama announced an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, dealers said.
The gains in the local bourse reflected optimism over the resolution of the debt crisis in Washington, with many investors expecting Wall Street to reverse its recent slump later in the day.
The index closed up 57.20 points, or 0.66 percent, at 8,701.38, after moving between 8,629.97 and 8,707.87, on turnover of NT$133.45 billion (US$4.63 billion).
Hotai denies expansion plan
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), Taiwan’s largest automobile retailer and dealer for Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp, dismissed a local media report yesterday that its local assembly partner is planning a factory expansion to take advantage of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed by Taiwan and China last year.
Citing a Hotai source, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News said earlier in the day that Toyota president and chief executive Akio Toyoda paid a low-key visit to Taiwan recently to evaluate the possibility of expanding the Kuozui Motors Ltd (國瑞汽車) factory in Taoyuan County.
“There are a lot of ongoing projects, but we haven’t heard any news about this [expansion],” the company’s Public Relations Manager Yu Shiao-chung (喻曉忠) said, adding that the local automobile market is “now quite mature, and there’s no need to expand.”
EVA switches to JFK Airport
EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s second-biggest air carrier, is transferring the arrival point on its Taipei-New York route from Newark Liberty International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) beginning at the end of October.
That could help lower the company’s operating costs by combining the point of arrival in New York for passenger and cargo flights, the company said in a statement.
“Currently, EVA has seven cargo flights a week that land in JFK. If the passenger flights land at the same airport, it would help the company’s cargo management,” the firm said.
The air carrier’s will maintain four flights a week on its Taipei-New York route after it starts landing in JFK, it said.
Foxconn to boost R&D
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), the world’s largest custom manufacturer of electronics, is committed to increasing investment in research and development, and boosting the role of automation in manufacturing, the Taipei-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
“Automation will enhance the overall working environment and play an increasingly important role in Foxconn’s operations as our manufacturing processes and the products we produce become more sophisticated,” the statement cited chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) as saying. “The use of automation is driven by Foxconn’s desire to move workers from more routine tasks to more value-added positions in manufacturing such as research and development, innovation and other areas.”
CPC to raise price of LPG
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) will raise the domestic price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by NT$0.5 per kilogram for households starting tomorrow and will keep natural gas prices unchanged this month, the refiner said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
NT dollar up against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, rising NT$0.052 to close at NT$28.838.
Turnover totaled US$767 million during the trading session.
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