Debt per capita falls
The average national debt shouldered by Taiwanese fell at the end of last month from a month earlier, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Finance.
The national debt per capita at the end of last month was NT$230,000 (US$7,553), down NT$1,000 from the previous month, the ministry said.
At the same time, Taiwan’s outstanding long-term debt with a maturity of more than one year totaled NT$5.27 trillion, while the country’s short-term debt was NT$125 billion, the ministry said.
Changhua inks bay deal
New York-based Victoria Cruises signed a letter of intent with Changhua County yesterday to invest in a bay development project at the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park (彰化濱海工業區).
Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) said the US$5 billion project would involve the construction of a waterside leisure and entertainment area similar to Singapore’s Marina Bay.
The project is part of Changhua’s efforts to turn the industrial park into a high-end tourism services hub, he said.
Petroleum exports unveiled
More than 57 percent of Taiwan’s petroleum products were exported to Southeast Asia last year and during the first seven months of this year, making the region Taiwan’s largest overseas market for such products, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday.
China (including Hong Kong) was the second-largest market, the destination for 10 percent of the country’s petroleum products, the ministry said.
Last year, petroleum products accounted for 7.4 percent of all of Taiwan’s exports. They were the fourth-biggest sector of exported goods after electronics, basic metals and plastics, the ministry said.
MediaTek sets revenue record
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s biggest handset chip designer, yesterday reported record revenue of NT$57.47 billion last quarter, which analysts attributed mainly to solid demand for smartphone chips.
The third-quarter figure was 6.16 percent higher than the previous quarter and fell within the company’s previously estimated range of NT$56.8 billion to NT$61.2 billion.
Analysts said MediaTek also benefited from an increase in orders for chips for tablet computers, digital TVs and optical storage use during the three-month period.
Macronix sales jump 21.8%
Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), which supplies memory chips to Japanese video game console maker Nintendo Co, yesterday said sales last month jumped 21.8 percent to NT$2.9 billion from a year earlier and rose 47.3 percent from August.
That brought the chipmaker’s total revenue last quarter to NT$6.7 billion, up 19.49 percent from NT$8.31 billion in the same period last year and 34 percent higher than the NT$5 billion it made in the previous quarter.
Primax sales surge by 31%
Computer and handset peripherals maker Primax Electronics Ltd (致伸科技) yesterday said its sales growth for this quarter could reman strong, after sales for last quarter hit the highest level since the company relisted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in the third quarter of 2012.
Consolidated sales for the July-to-September quarter rose 31 percent year-on-year and 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$13.62 billion, the firm said in a statement.
Cumulative sales in the first nine months rose 24 percent year-on-year to NT$38.8 billion, thanks to continued order increases, the company said.
"We believe solid September sales should boost investors' confidence as both camera module and speaker shipments resume momentum. Moreover, we think a 40-50 percent capacity increase in 2015 could indicate an upbeat audio business outlook from its customers (Beats, B&O and Bose)," Barclays Capital Securities Taiwan Ltd said in a note.
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