Bicycle maker Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) yesterday said that it is likely to expand its YouBike public bicycle rental system to Changhua County, Greater Taichung and New Taipei City.
The company has signed a contract with the Changhua County Government to launch the cycle sharing system there, which would make the county the second place in Taiwan to offer the service, Giant chief executive Anthony Lo (羅祥安) told reporters yesterday.
The Greater Taichung City Council is in the process of deciding whether to install the system there too, he added.
Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times
In New Taipei City, the company has set up trial systems in Xindian (新店) and Xizhi (汐止) districts that connect with the cycle network in Taipei, Lo said, adding that the New Taipei City Government will decide whether to increase the number of rental sites based on the results of the trials.
Giant also plans to install an additional 173 YouBike rental sites and put 5,030 bicycles in circulation in Taipei by the end of the first half of next year, Lo said.
Lo said the company expects its service in the capital to break even next year.
According to Lo, the service is easier to operate in cities with large populations and many commuters, such as Taipei, London, Paris and New York.
However, Lo said that Taipei’s cycling infrastructure can still be improved.
Citing Canadian bicycle sharing system BIXI’s bankruptcy filing in January, Lo said that such services are not likely to generate much profit for the company operating them because rental fees have to be kept low enough for the general public to be able to access the service.
Despite the low profitability of public cycle networks, Giant’s Taipei sales still rose after it launched the YouBike system there.
According to the company, each of the system’s bikes costs about NT$10,000 (US$330) because they are designed to withstand frequent use.
The bicycles are built to be used 13 times a day on average, much more often than the twice a day use that most other bicycles average, the company said.
Giant expects to post 5 to 10 percent revenue growth this year, eyeing better weather around the world and a stronger global economy, Lo said.
He added that the company forecasts sales to China to grow by 10 percent this year, while the average selling price of its products is expected to remain at about US$300 per unit.
Last year, the company posted revenue of NT$54.32 billion, up 0.36 percent from NT$54.13 billion a year ago, according to its filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Giant distributed 6.31 million bicycles worldwide last year for an annual rise of 1.5 percent, Lo said.
Last year, the company shipped 2.4 million bicycles to China, up from approximately 2 million a year earlier, he said.
The seizure of one of the largest known mercury shipments in history, moving from mines in Mexico to illegal Amazon gold mining zones, exposes the wide use of the toxic metal in the rainforest, according to authorities. Peru’s customs agency, SUNAT, found 4 tonnes of illegal mercury in Lima’s port district of Callao, according to a report by the non-profit Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA). “This SUNAT intervention has prevented this chemical from having a serious impact on people’s health and the environment, as can be seen in several areas of the country devastated by the illegal use of mercury and illicit activities,”
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
Taiwan’s property transactions in the first half of this year fell 26.4 percent year-on-year to about 130,000 units, as credit controls and mortgage restrictions dampened demand, data from the Ministry of the Interior showed yesterday. Keelung saw the steepest decline, with transactions plummeting 45.6 percent to just 2,041 units — the lowest since the ministry began its survey in 2006. In contrast, Miaoli County was the only region to experience year-on-year growth, with transactions rising 2.4 percent to 3,229 units. Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) attributed the increase in deals in Miaoli, particularly Jhunan (竹南) and Toufen (頭份) townships, to spillover demand
RSS