CONGLOMERATES
Banks sue Ting Hsin Group
Several banks on Tuesday filed a motion with the Taipei District Court for provisional attachments of assets and lands held by a subsidiary of the scandal-ridden Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) after it defaulted on a loan. The move came after Ting Lu Development Co (頂率開發), Ting Hsin’s real-estate unit, failed to pay a balance of NT$6.5 billion (US$205 million) owed on a syndicated loan by the Dec. 31 dateline.
FINANCE
Public debt per capita rises
Government debt per person in Taiwan climbed to NT$232,000 (US$7,254) at the end of last month, an increase of NT$3,000 from the end of the previous month, the Ministry of Finance said. Outstanding debt with a maturity of more than one year stood at NT$5.25 trillion as of the end of last month, while outstanding short-term debt (maturing in less than a year) was NT$190 billion, the ministry said.
FINANCE
Forex reserves shrink
Foreign-exchange reserves slid to US$418.98 billion at the end of last month, down US$2.486 billion from a month earlier, as the euro and other major currencies depreciated against the US dollar, the central bank said in a statement on Tuesday. For the full year, foreign-exchange reserves rose US$2.169 billion from the end of 2013, data showed.
FINANCE
T-bill sale falls short
The government failed to achieve its target at a Treasury bill sale for the first time in eight months on signs the central bank would raise interest rates this year. The Ministry of Finance sold NT$28.7 billion of 273-day Treasury bills yesterday, less than its NT$30 billion goal, at a yield of 0.55 percent, the central bank said in a statement. That is the highest yield on sales of similar-
maturity debt since February 2013, while the 2.1 bid-to-cover ratio was the lowest since 2007.
SEMICONDUCTORS
ASE sales beat forecast
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s top chip packager, yesterday said revenue edged down 1.5 percent last month to NT$24.87 billion from NT$25.25 billion the previous month. Nonetheless, its revenue still rose 15 percent sequentially to NT$76.65 billion last quarter, from NT$66.63 billion in the previous quarter. The quarterly growth exceeded the company’s forecast of a 12 percent sequential expansion. Last year, ASE’s sales rose 16.71 percent to NT$256.59 billion from NT$219.86 billion.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Macronix sales dip 11.7%
Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), which supplies memory chips to Japanese game console maker Nintendo Co, yesterday said revenue fell 11.7 percent sequentially to NT$1.68 billion last month. Last year, the memory chipmaker accumulated NT$22.41 billion in total revenue, up 1 percent from NT$22.2 billion in 2013.
GARMENTS
Makalot annual sales up
Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽實業), a diversified garment manufacturer for global brands and major clothing retailers, yesterday reported quarterly revenues of NT$4.64 billion (US$145 million) for last quarter, up 8.92 percent from NT$4.26 billion a year earlier. Consolidated sales for October to December fell 22.92 percent from the previous quarter’s NT$6.02 billion. For the full year, consolidated sales totaled NT$20.88 billion, up 16.63 percent from the previous year.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last