HEALTHCARE
Cowealth upbeat on demand
Medical equipment supplier Cowealth Medical Co (合富) posted revenue of NT$377.66 million (US$12.57 million) last month, up 6.04 percent from NT$356.14 million the previous year and more than 100 percent from NT$172.17 million the previous month, according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Last quarter, Cowealth’s revenue was NT$740.21 million, up 12.08 percent from NT$660.41 million the previous quarter and 13.42 percent from NT$652.6 million the previous year, filing said. The China-focused company expects its revenue to grow 25 percent year-on-year this year on the back of rising demand for its diagnostics facilities and reagents in China.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
NT dollar joins Asian rebound
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.103 to close at NT$30.199 on buying by foreign banks in the wake of a rebound staged by other regional currencies, in particular the won, dealers said. The central bank intervened toward the end of the session, as it has done in recent sessions, to help the greenback recoup some of its earlier losses in a bid to slow the pace of the Taiwan dollar’s appreciation, they said. Despite the central bank’s intervention, turnover remained thin, as many investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the conclusion of a European Central Bank policymaking meeting later in the day, they added. Turnover totaled US$495 million.
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