Water rationing set to begin
Taoyuan County and Linkou District (林口) in New Taipei City are set to face first-stage water rationing from Thursday, the Taiwan Water Corp said yesterday.
Water stored in the Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) in Taoyuan County was recorded at 137.25 million tonnes on Thursday, which is the lowest storage level in the past decade, the company said in a statement.
The state-owned company said that the water pressure in Taoyuan and Linkou would be reduced between 11pm and 5am, adding that the first-phase measure is expected to have little impact on household water consumption.
The company suggested households that usually require large amounts of water at night should conserve water in the daytime for use as a backup source.
Ministry inks investment letters
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has signed letters of intent with three European companies, which are expected to expand their investment in Taiwan to a total of NT$5 billion (US$161.26 million) over the next three years, the Department of Investment Services said in a statement yesterday.
The companies include French-based Suez Environment, Swissray Global in Geneva and Biodenta Corp of Switzerland. Biodenta develops dental implant systems, while Suez Environment operates largely in wastewater treatment and waste management sectors, the department said.
Sovereign bond target missed
The government yesterday sold NT$22.9 billion in Treasury bonds with a coupon rate of 2.25 percent, short of a NT$30 billion goal, according to a statement issued by the central bank.
The government has missed its target at a sovereign bond sale for the fourth time this year as the Ministry of Finance capped yields amid weak demand from insurers.
The yield on 30-year sovereign notes climbed six basis points, or 0.06 percentage points, to 2.42 percent yesterday on the GRETAI Securities Market.
Investors bid 1.29 times the amount offered at the auction, less than the 1.48 ratio at the July sale.
In addition, insurers bought 22 percent of the 30-year bonds, compared with an average of 36 percent for the 30-year debts over the past five years.
Health app to promote exercise
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s second-largest telecom company, on Thursday teamed up with sports events platform Sports Bank to introduce a new mobile app billed as the first locally produced platform for saving “health assets” such as time spent exercising.
The platform seeks to integrate sporting match news and information with personal exercise data.
Its central feature is keeping track of users’ data in the form of points to compete against other users and encourage a habit of working out, Taiwan Mobile said at a launch ceremony.
In Taiwan, more than 30 percent of people work out regularly — defined as three times per week, for 30 minutes each time — and more than 700 sports events are held each year, the company said.
V Air due to begin operations
V Air (威航), TransAsia Airways Group’s (復興航空集團) new low-cost carrier, yesterday said it would launch services on Dec. 17 with an inaugural flight to Bangkok.
The budget airline plans to begin operations between Taipei and Chiang Mai in northern Thailand from Jan. 7, according to the company.
Introductory prices for a one-way trip on the maiden flight would start at NT$1,988, V Air said, adding that if more people participated in an online campaign, the price would drop.
The final price for the inaugural flight and the official flight schedule are set to be announced on Dec. 1, the carrier said.
TV panel prices continue rising
Prices of TV panels quoted for this month continued to rise, driven by strong demand from international TV brands ahead of the Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping season, WitsView — a research division at Taiwan-based market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) — said in a report yesterday.
WitsView said that the price hikes in the global TV panel business also reflected strong demand this month as China celebrated Singles Day on Nov. 11.
According to WitsView, the prices of 40-inch and 48-inch TV screens quoted for this month rose US$3 from the previous month, while 50-inch panel prices increased between US$2 and US$3 from last month and 32-inch panels prices were US$1 higher.
Apple tablets out soon: telecoms
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday said the new generation of Apple Inc tablets would be available for purchase soon, and Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) said it has started accepting pre-orders for the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3, prompting speculation that the new gadgets would hit local stores early next month.
Far EasTone, which began accepting pre-orders late last month, said several thousand people have placed orders, 80 percent of which are for the iPad Air 2, it said.
The cheapest iPad Air 2 is sold at US$499 per unit, while prices for an iPad Mini 3 start at US$399, according to Apple.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by