NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rose the most since April, as a pledge by European leaders to tackle the debt crisis helped shore up demand for riskier assets.
“Sentiment was hugely boosted today following the consensus reached by German and French leaders,” said Eric Hsing, a fixed-income trader at First Securities Inc (第一金證券).
“It seems investors are slightly more optimistic about the global economy,” Hsing said.
The NT dollar appreciated 0.5 percent, or NT$0.145, to close at NT$30.348 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
During the session, the local currency touched NT$30.29, the strongest level since Sept. 22. Turnover yesterday totaled US$888 million.
FTA may expand trade: official
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新) yesterday said that Taiwan should make good use of its free-trade agreement (FTA) with Guatemala and the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China to expand opportunities for Taiwanese businesses.
The Taiwan-Guatemala FTA was signed in 2006, the same year Guatemala inked an FTA with the US, Liang said at a Guatemala trade and investment promotion conference held in Taipei.
Liang said he believed that combining the benefits of the two FTAs would create huge opportunities.
Trade volume between Taiwan and Guatemala totaled US$150 million last year. In the first seven months of this year, exports to Guatemala rose 40 percent to US$63 million, while imports from Guatemala reached US$42 million, Liang said.
Sanyo dehumidifiers recalled
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced a formal recall of seven types of Sanyo (三洋) brand dehumidifiers after five of the devices reportedly caught fire or began melting.
The ministry’s Bureau of Standards, Metrology & Inspection said the 59,000 dehumidifiers that are subject to recall were manufactured between Jan. 1, 1998, and Dec. 31, 2009, by Taipei-based Soonwell Corp (順威實業) for Sanyo.
The bureau said aging capacitors or control circuit boards could be to blame for the dehumidifiers’ problems.
Sanyo had already announced a recall of the dehumidifiers in June and offered to replace potentially defective parts at customers’ homes.
The models in question are the SDH-220B (produced from 2006 to 2008), SDH-281BC (2000 to 2005), SDH-601B (1998 to 2009), SDH-601BC (1999 to 2003), SDH-801B (2001 to 2009), SDH-803N (2006 to 2009) and SDH-816 (2008).
Many want to go into business
More than 79 percent of employees want to set up their own businesses, but only 13.28 percent have taken action to do so, according to a survey published yesterday by 1111 Job Bank.
The survey found that most of the workers polled favor using composite business models to establish restaurants, followed by personalized products. Cafes were also a popular choice.
The majority of those surveyed also said they would prefer to launch their own brands rather than buy into a franchise.
However, these start-ups do not have very high salaries, and even those showing a profit receive an average monthly income of NT$33,889, lower than the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics’ average salary of NT$36,217 for last year, the poll showed.
The survey was conducted online from Sept. 26 to Oct. 7, with 1,084 valid responses.
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
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FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six