Heavyweights boost TAIEX
The TAIEX closed up yesterday as buying focused on market heavyweights, helping the broader market break through the narrow range in trading seen earlier in the session, dealers said.
Turnover remained thin, as many foreign institutional investors were away for the Christmas holiday and local investors stayed on the sidelines because of lingering concerns over the US’ pending “fiscal cliff,” they said.
The weighted index closed up 101.05 points, or 1.34 percent, at 7,636.57, on turnover of NT$56.16 billion (US$1.93 billion).
Export zones post big profits
The nation’s export processing zones posted more than NT$312.9 billion in revenue in the first 11 months of the year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Export Processing Zone Administration said yesterday. The ministry also said the figure indicated that its promotion of industry clusters has improved the efficiency of businesses operating in the zones.
In the Taichung Export Processing Zone, the biggest cluster is comprised of 28 optoelectronics companies, which make up 93 percent of the total number of companies and include Wintek Corp (勝華), Lingsen Precision Industries Ltd (菱生精密), Canon Inc Taiwan and Asia Optical Co (亞洲光學).
The 32 semiconductor packaging companies in the Nantze Export Processing Zone are the biggest cluster there, making up 90 percent of the total number, which includes Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光) and NXP Semiconductors Taiwan Ltd.
The Kaohsiung Software-based Technology Park accommodates 149 knowledge-based companies that account for 81 percent of the total number.
TransAsia deploys first Airbus
The first Airbus A330-300 acquired by TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空) was deployed on routes to Japan and Singapore yesterday as part of the airline’s efforts to expand passenger capacity on its international flights.
“The A330-300 aircraft — our first wide-body jet –– will contribute to our new destination expansion and enhance our competitiveness among our peers,” TransAsia chairman Vincent Lin (林明昇) said.
With the introduction of two A330s the airline will achieve better efficiency and mitigate the effects of fluctuating fuel prices as it adds different models to its fleet, Lin said.
The airline plans to obtain another six A321-200s, 12 A321-neos and 12 ATR-600s, all to be delivered by 2020, he added.
Last week, TransAsia announced plans to establish a Bangkok branch to facilitate the airline’s reach into Southeast Asia, he said.
King Yuan increases capex
King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子), one of the nation’s leading integrated circuit testing service providers, yesterday said it is planning to allocate almost NT$5 billion in capital expenditure (capex) next year to expand its business.
The company said its board has approved a proposal for NT$4.99 billion in capex for next year, up from about NT$3.8 billion this year. The planned capex will be funded from its own capital and by bank loans, King Yuan said.
Of the nearly NT$5 billion in capex, King Yuan said, it would spend about NT$1 billion building a new production base in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and the remaining NT$3.99 billion could be used to purchase integrated circuit testing equipment to boost the company’s overall production capacity, it said.
NT dollar loses to greenback
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, dropping NT$0.002 to close at NT$29.130.
Turnover totaled about US$352 million during the trading session.
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
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