Treasury bonds sold
The government sold NT$35 billion (US$1.1 billion) of 10-year Treasury bonds at a yield of 1.288 percent at auction yesterday, the central bank said.
The sale of the securities attracted bids for 1.45 times the amount on offer, the central bank said in a statement. The government last sold 10-year debt in June at a yield of 1.475 percent. That offer had a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.26 times.
The securities industry was the biggest buyer at the auction, taking 52 percent of the total issuance, followed by the banking sector, which took 34.7 percent.
The central bank will end a run of five interest-rate increases at a quarterly policy review tomorrow, according to 12 of 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The rest predict a 0.125 percentage point rise to 2 percent.
Company buys forwards
CS Aluminium Corp (中鋼鋁業) bought US$37 million and 3.55 million euro of forward contracts on Monday, parent company China Steel Corp (中鋼) said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
To hedge its foreign exchange risks, the company said the US dollar forwards will carry forward rates of NT$28.420 to NT$30.533 to the US dollar and will expire by June 21, 2015.
The euro forwards will carry forward rates of NT$39.300 to NT$40.000 to the euro and will expire by Nov. 10, 2013, it said.
Tablet data plan launched
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday launched a NT$199 (US$6.50) monthly data plan that targets tablet computer users.
Consumers who subscribe to this plan can use Far EasTone’s 15,000 “hot spots” around the country for Wi-Fi connection, with free 3G data traffic of 1 gigabyte per month, the company said.
Far EasTone’s Wi-Fi hotspots will increase to 25,000 by the end of the year. Currently the company has about 40,000 subscribers to its tablet data plan, and the company expects the number to grow by 20 percent month-on-month from next month to December, reaching 70,000 by the end of this year.
A10 sets up R&D center
A10 Networks Inc, a US company which makes networking and security products, is investing NT$100 million in setting up its fourth global research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan.
The center, located at Nangang Software Park in Taipei, will focus on cloud computing technology and will produce related bandwidth management equipment, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News.
A10 has three other R&D centers located in Silicon Valley, China and India. Its main clients include Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴集團), NTT DoCoMo Inc, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子).
EnTie Bank to auction stake
EnTie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行) yesterday announced a plan to auction its stake in a building in downtown Taipei to boost earnings.
The building, located near Da-an Forest Park and measuring 1,331 ping (4,400m2) in floor space, is set at a floor price of NT$1.01 billion (US$33.16 million), the bank said in a statement.
Bidding is slated for Oct. 7 at the bank’s office in Neihu, the statement said.
Starting today, the lender’s offshore banking unit will provide customers with yuan conversions, remittances and other services, the statement added.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.116 to close at NT$30.456.
Turnover totaled US$866 million during the trading session.
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