Fed fears drag TAIEX lower
The TAIEX lost ground yesterday, ending below the key 8,000-point level as investors took cues from a weakening Wall Street overnight amid fears that the US Federal Reserve is planning to scale back its liquidity easing measures, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 71.64 points, or 0.89 percent, at 7,957.46 on turnover of NT$77.59 billion (US$2.62 billion).
Acer to unveil new phones
Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s fourth-largest PC vendor, on Wednesday said it plans to unveil three new Android smartphone models at the upcoming Mobile World Congress, which begins in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday.
Acer said the new smartphones are the Liquid C1, powered by Intel Corp’s Atom chip, a dual SIM card slot Liquid E1 and an entry-level Liquid Z2.
The Liquid C1 is a high-end model made to meet office workers’ needs by allowing them to modify documents on a high-speed processor, the mid-tier Liquid E1 features a dual-speaker sound system and a “zero shutter delay” camera, while the entry-level Liquid Z2 is designed to help beginners get used to the smartphone experience, the firm said.
Acer said the new models would go on sale in the first quarter.
Amazon UK to sell HTC One
Online retailer Amazon.com Inc’s UK Web site says that the firm will start selling Taiwanese firm HTC Corp’s (宏達電) new flagship smartphone, the HTC One, next month.
Amazon put up an HTC One pre-order page yesterday, listing the new device, due to go on sale on March 15, at a price of £519.99 (US$792.46).
The price is higher than that of its predecessor, the One X, which was priced at £490 when it went on sale on Amazon in April last year.
HTC said the phone would go on sale globally next month through more than 185 telecoms operators.
Daikure begins work on plant
Japanese heat exchanger maker Daikure Co Ltd is to hold a groundbreaking ceremony today at the Southern Taiwan Science Park, becoming the first to build a plant at the Taiwan-Japan Park, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry forecast Daikure would finish construction of its 10,514m2 new plant, which is being built at a cost of NT$5.5 billion, by the end of this year.
After starting mass production, the new plant is forecast to generate NT$150 million (US$5.06 million) and create about 50 jobs, the ministry said in a statement.
Machine tool exports disappoint
Local machine tool makers exported products worth US$287.27 last month, down 13.3 percent from US$331.34 million the previous year, because of dwindling demand and a loss of orders to Japanese rivals, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 機器工業同業公會) said.
Machine tool exports to Thailand, Turkey and India, the third, forth and fifth-largest importers of Taiwanese machine tools respectively, all posted double-digit year-on-year declines last month, while exports to the US, the second-largest importer of the products, declined 4.6 percent.
However, exports to China, the largest importer of Taiwanese products, rose 7.2 percent to US$87.08 million last month from US$81.23 billion in January last year.
Despite the decrease in machine tool exports, overall machine exports rose 3.4 percent to US$1.57 billion last month from US$1.52 billion the previous year.
NT dollar win streak ends
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.08 to close at NT$29.680 to end a three-session winning streak.
Turnover was US$875 million.
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