ENERGY
Firms vow to cut consumption
Six domestic companies have vowed to cut energy consumption by NT$270 million (US$8.55 million) and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 69,000 tonnes through collaboration with the government’s three-year energy-saving drive, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The ministry said the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions would require the equivalent of 179 Daan Forest Parks (大安森林公園). The companies involved are Chung Hwa Pulp Corp (中華紙漿), Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業), Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corp (東和鋼鐵), Kuozui Motor Ltd (國瑞汽車), Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光能源) and Savior Lifetec Corp (展旺生命科技), the ministry said.
CHIPMAKERS
Nanya income declines
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest DRAM chipmaker, yesterday reported second-quarter net income of NT$4.25 billion, down 30.1 percent year-on-year and 32.4 percent quarter-on-quarter. Earnings per share (EPS) were NT$1.75, the lowest level in the past six quarters. For the first half of the year, net income totaled NT$10.55 billion, with EPS of NT$4.36. Revenue for last quarter contracted by 7.32 percent to NT$11.16 billion from NT$12.03 billion in the first quarter, the company reported earlier this month. Nanya said it still plans to produce 20-nanometer (nm) chips in 2017, but has not decided when to start a fundraising scheme in which it is to issue up to 400 million new shares to finance the construction of the new 20nm factory.
SEMICONDUCTORS
King Yuan to buy back shares
King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子), a domestic chip packaging and testing company, plans to buy back 30 million of its shares, or 2.52 percent of outstanding stock, on the open market, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. King Yuan said the share buyback would begin today and run through Sept. 28. It plans to repurchase the shares at between NT$14.39 and NT$38.21 per share, the filing showed. King Yuan shares ended 4.05 percent higher at NT$20.05 yesterday. The company also reported second-quarter profit of NT$680 million, down 13 percent year-on-year, but up 13.45 percent quarter-on-quarter, with EPS of NT$0.57. In the first half of the year, net income totaled NT$1.28 billion, up 5.4 percent from a year earlier, at NT$1.07 per share.
ELECTRONICS
E Ink, Netronix eye venture
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s largest e-paper display supplier, yesterday announced a partnership with e-reader maker Netronix Inc (振曜科技) to set up a joint venture in the economic and technology development zone in Yangzhou in China’s Jiangsu Province. The new venture — in which E Ink is to hold a 49 percent share and Netronix a 51 percent share — is to focus on system integration and product assembly services for e-paper applications, which are to be used in smartphone back covers, electronic shelf labels and e-paper billboards. It is set to start mass production in October, E Ink said.
INTERNET
Addcn HK unit to break even
Addcn Technology Co Ltd (數字科技), which operates online trading platforms on which people can sell cars, houses, clothing and virtual treasures, yesterday said it expected its online property classified advertising Web site in Hong Kong to break even next year after beginning operation last 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
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