TSMC to award extra bonuses
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chip-maker, announced on Saturday it will give additional bonuses to employees this year.
At the company’s annual sports event, TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) said the company will give NT$12,000 to each employee — about 28,000 — who started working for the chip maker before May 30.
In the third quarter, TSMC recorded a high in earnings with its net profit up 17.9 percent from a quarter earlier to NT$49.30 billion (US$1.69 billion), while its consolidated sales beat the company’s estimate to reach NT$141.38 billion, up 10.4 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Chang said TSMC’s sales are expected to top NT$500 billion this year, up sharply from the NT$128 million recorded in 1987, when the company was established.
Prices may stabilize: steelmaker
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest integrated steelmaker, said on Saturday that there are signs that steel product prices will soon bottom out in several major world markets because of an increase in demand in the fourth quarter.
China Steel chairman Tsou Juo-chi (鄒若齊) said orders for the company’s steel plates in the fourth quarter have risen by 3 to 5 percent from a quarter earlier, when companies streamlined their inventories because of the sluggish global economy.
Thanks to the recovery in orders, Tsou said product prices in the US, China and Japan have stabilized to some extent, and the hope is that prices will begin to rebound by the end of this quarter.
In addition, China’s government appears ready to further stimulate its slowing economy after the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th National Congress, which begins on Nov. 8, he said.
Gourmet Master boosts profits
Gourmet Master Co (美食達人), operator of the 85oC cafe chain, said on Saturday it posted a 5 percent increase in net profit for the third quarter despite the weakness of economic fundamentals.
During the July-September period, Gourmet Master recorded NT$260 million in net profit, with earnings per share (EPS) at NT$1.8, while its consolidated sales rose 8 percent from the second quarter to NT$3.45 billion, which was also up 2 percent from a year earlier.
In the first nine months of this year, the company posted NT$838 million in net profit, up 5 percent year-on-year, with EPS at NT$5.8, while consolidated sales during the period rose 21 percent from a year ago to NT$9.95 billion.
Amtran profits soar
Amtran Technology Co (瑞軒科技), which supplies flat-panel TVs for Vizio Inc and other TV brands, said on Friday its net profits soared 83 percent to NT$1.31 billion in the first nine months from NT$660 million a year ago. The figure surpassed the NT$1.2 billion Amtran made for the whole of last year.
Gross margin was 10.5 percent in the first three quarters, while operating margin hit 2.4 percent in the nine-month period.
In the first three quarters, Amtran shipped 4.4 million units of flat-screen TV sets, down slightly from 4.41 million in the same period last year.
Revenues totaled NT$45.3 billion in the first three quarters.
Sale aims to help sector: TIGF
The Taiwan Insurance Guaranty Fund (TIGF, 保險安定基金) said on Saturday that the planned public sale of loss-making Kuo Hua Life Insurance Co (國華人壽), which has been in government receivership since August 2009, was aimed at helping to support the development of the local insurance sector.
According to TIGF, Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), Chinatrust Life Insurance Co (中信人壽), Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) and Transglobe Life Insurance Inc (全球人壽) are expected to bid for 49-year-old Kuo Hua at an auction to be held tomorrow.
Taiwan witnesses FDI growth
The central bank said Taiwan performed better in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) among developing economies in Asia in the first half of this year.
Citing a report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the bank said Taiwan’s FDI inflows rose to US$1.8 billion in the first half, from an outflow of US$1.4 billion over the same period last year. Taiwan’s recovery in FDI inflows compares with an 11 percent decline in FDI inflows posted by developing Asian economies and a 4.8 percent fall by developing countries worldwide.
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
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
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