RETAIL
Beitou Costco to open
US company Costco Wholesale Co will open a new store in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) on Saturday next week, its second outlet in Taipei and the 12th in Taiwan. Richard Chang (張嗣漢), senior vice president of Costco Wholesale in Asia, said the new Beitou store, with NT$1 billion (US$31 million) in investment, is aimed at reducing the client overload at the company’s Neihu outlet, while targeting consumers living in the Tamsui (淡水), Zhuwei (竹圍) and Guandu (關渡) areas. Costco opened its first outlet in Taiwan in 1997.
EMPLOYMENT
Tech, medicine lead
Technology, medicine and consumer-related businesses will dominate the job market this year, while younger and female employees are increasingly filling middle and high-ranking executive positions for the past two years, an online recruitment agency 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. Consumer-oriented establishments supply 27 percent of jobs, followed by technology firms at 25 percent and medicine and health at 18 percent, 104 vice president Jason Chin (晉麗明) told a media briefing. People aged between 30 and 39 filled 47.4 percent of executive positions last year, from 34.5 percent in 2013, the job bank said.
CEMENT
Asia Cement plans dividend
Asia Cement Corp (亞洲水泥) yesterday said its board plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.1 per share based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$1.55, equivalent to a payout ratio of 70.97 percent. The Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) subsidiary reported net profit of NT$4.93 billion for last year, down 54.75 percent from NT$10.91 billion in 2014. Affected by weak downstream demand and persistent oversupply in China, Asia Cement’s consolidated revenue fell to NT$66.29 billion last year from NT$77.68 billion a year ago.
FOODSTUFFS
Wei Chuan loses NT$1.92bn
Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) yesterday said net loss increased from NT$304 million in 2014 to NT$1.91 billion last year, with losses per share expanding from NT$0.24 to NT$3.78, the worst since 2000. Total revenue last year fell almost 20 percent to NT$20.05 billion, as major products encountered a serious boycott by customers due to the cooking oil scandal at its former biggest shareholder, Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團). The company said it would not pay a dividend.
HOSPITALITY
FX Hotels loses NT$149m
FX Hotels Group Inc (富驛酒店集團), which manages more than 40 directly operated and franchise hotels in Taiwan and China, incurred losses of NT$149 million, or losses of NT$3.91 per share, for last year because the hotelier shut down unprofitable outlets and recognized bad debts from operation losses in China. In 2014, FX Hotels posted a record profit of NT$59.02 million, or NT$1.55 per share. The hotelier, which faced overdue accounts receivables at some Chinese corporate customers, closed two hotels in Tianjin and Beijing.
CONSTRUCTION
Shining net income plunges
Taichung-based Shining Building Business Co (鄉林建設) on Wednesday reported NT$225 million in net income for last year, or earnings of NT$0.25 per share. That was a significant slowdown from net profit of NT$1.1 billion in 2014, or NT$1.37 per share, a year earlier. The builder attributed the retreat to accounting rule changes under which developers cannot recognize income from projects until they are completed.
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