Taiwan Polysilicon cuts workers
Taiwan Polysilicon Corp (福聚太陽能), which makes polysilicon for solar cell production, yesterday said it was reducing its workforce by more than 22 percent and would temporarily suspend production because of lower-than-expected demand.
Taiwan Polysilicon, a 64.9 percent holding of LCY Chemical Corp (李長榮化學), yesterday laid off 45 people, reducing its workforce to about 240.
It plans to lay off another 25 people today, company spokesman Wu Shian-jin (吳銜晉) said.
The company produced 320 tonnes of polysilicon in the first half of the year, but it will stop production in the next two months, Wu said.
Wu cited worsening market conditions for the reductions, because of the impact of the US’ imposition of antidumping duties on polysilicon exports from Taiwan and China, slower-than-expected demand from solar power stations in China.
TSMC posts record sales
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies A8 processors for Apple Inc’s new iPhone 6, yesterday posted record high revenues for last month.
Sales rose 6.7 percent to NT$69.28 billion (US$2.31 billion) from July, up 25.8 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
In July, TSMC forecast that revenue this quarter would hit a record of between NT$206 billion and NT$209 billion, representing an increase of between 12.56 percent and 14.19 percent from the second quarter.
Meanwhile, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) on Tuesday said that sales last month dipped to their lowest level since April, dragged down by the company’s solar business.
Consolidated sales last month declined 1.09 percent from July to NT$11.42 billion, but were up 3.79 percent from a year earlier, said UMC, the nation’s second-largest maker of made-to-order semiconductor chips.
In the first eight months of the year, TSMC saw cumulative revenue increase 17.6 percent to NT$395.84 billion from the same period last year, while UMC’s total sales in the same period grew 10.07 percent to NT$90.52 billion from a year ago.
Pension cuts Chunghwa profit
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest telecommunications operator, yesterday reported an 18.18 percent annual decline in net profit to NT$2.88 billion last month, primarily due to a lump-sum payment to employees joining an early retirement program.
Chunghwa’s net income in the first eight months of the year was NT$27.07 billion, edging up 1 percent from the same period last year and helping the company achieve 75.5 percent of its target for this year.
Revenue fell 2.8 percent last month to NT$18.56 billion from a year ago, bringing total revenue in the January-August period to NT$147.83 billion, down 1.6 percent year-on-year.
Innolux leads in revenue
Innolux Corp (群創), the nation’s largest LCD panel manufacturer, on Tuesday said that revenue for last month increased 4.8 percent to NT$36.43 billion from July after shipments of flat panels for PCs and TVs jumped 11.8 percent from the previous month. The figure was the highest level in four months.
Rival AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) reported that revenue edged lower by 0.7 percent to NT$35.51 billion last month from July, although shipments of flat panels for PCs and TVs increased 3.6 percent to 9.98 million units.
Smaller maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) also saw revenue for last month decline 1.69 percent month-on-month to NT$1.83 billion, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Vanilla Air to fly to Kaohsiung
Vanilla Air Inc, a budget airline in Japan wholly owned by ANA Holdings Inc — the parent company of All Nippon Airways (ANA) — is to launch daily flights between Kaohsiung International Airport and Narita International Airport in Tokyo in February.
That will make Vanilla Air the third low-cost carrier to operate a route to Greater Kaohsiung, after Air Busan Co Ltd of South Korea and Peach Aviation of Japan.
Vanilla Air is scheduled to start selling tickets online for the new route this afternoon, with the lowest ticket price before tax set at NT$1,950 (US$65) one-way, the carrier said in a statement yesterday.
Vanilla Air launched its Taipei and Tokyo route in December last year. The new route will be its second in Taiwan.
Hanoi slaps tax on steel imports
The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade announced on Friday last week that it would levy an anti-dumping tax on cold-rolled stainless steel imported from Taiwan, China, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The tariffs, ranging from 3.07 percent to 37.29 percent, is to take effect from Oct. 5, for a period of five years, the ministry said.
Taiwanese steelmakers will be hit with the highest duties — 37.29 percent on Yuan Long Stainless Steel Corp (遠龍不銹鋼) and 13.79 percent on other Taiwanese companies, according to a report posted on the Vietnamese government’s Web site on Tuesday.
Indonesian steel producers will incur the lowest rate at 3.07 percent, while tariffs of between 4.64 percent and 10.71 percent will be levied on Chinese and Malaysian enterprises, the Vietnamese government said.
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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
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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