SHIPPING
Chairman tipped to change
Former Evergreen Group (長榮集團) vice chairman Bronson Hsieh (謝志堅) is expected to become the new chairman of Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), replacing Frank Lu (盧峰海), local media reported yesterday. Yang Ming Marine Transport, the nation’s second-largest container shipper in terms of fleet size, is likely to hold a board meeting today to approve Hsieh’s appointment, reports said, citing government sources. Yang Ming Marine Transport reported a net loss of NT$7.72 billion (US$239.6) last year, or NT$2.24 in losses per share, with total sales of NT$127.56 billion. Hsieh worked at Evergreen Group for more than 40 years before stepping down from his position earlier this year.
FOOD
UPE names new president
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (UPE, 統一企業), one of Taiwan’s leading food makers, yesterday elected the head of its Chinese subsidiary to serve as its president in a potential move to take over the reins from chairman Alex Lo (羅智先). The board of directors yesterday elected Hou Jung-lung (侯榮隆), president of Uni-President China Holding Co (UPC, 統一中控), to serve as the company’s new president with immediate effect, UPE said in a statement. Hou, 52, has been UPC's president since 2001.
HEALTH
Former premier to head IBMI
The government-funded Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry (IBMI, 生技醫療產業策進會) yesterday announced it had appointed former premier Simon Chang (張善政) as its new chairman, replacing Chen Wei-jao (陳維昭). Chang is to have a four-year tenure as IBMI chairman. The non-profit organization also elected National Taiwan University president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) as vice chairman, along with the selection of 27 new directors and nine new supervisors. IBMI was established in 1988 by former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who served as chairman for its first eight years.
SOLAR WAFERS
GW dividend approved
GlobalWafers Co Ltd (GW, 環球晶圓) yesterday obtained shareholders’ approval to distribute a cash dividend of NT$5 per share based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$5.8 per share. GlobalWafers, a subsidiary of solar wafer maker Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (中美矽晶), said it has maintained steady growth in sales since the fourth quarter of last year thanks to better-than-expected demand for small and medium-sized wafers. However, cumulative sales dropped 7.44 percent to NT$6.21 billion for the first five months of this year from the same period last year, company data showed.
PANELMAKERS
CPT heads apologize
Flat-panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (CPT, 中華映管) chairman Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山) and president Lin Sheng-chang (林盛昌) yesterday apologized to shareholders over years of losses and said that high-ranking executives had taken a voluntary salary cut of between 10 and 20 percent from last month. To boost its efforts to turn the results around, the company said it would shift its focus to niche products, such as those used in the automotive items and industrial control segments, as well as to dispose of unprofitable affiliates and assets.
CEMENT
TCC remains cautious
Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥), the nation’s biggest cement maker, yesterday said it remains cautious about its business outlook for the near term after reporting a sharp decline in eanings per share of NT$1.56 for last year from NT$2.93 a year earlier. While the company secured shareholders’ approval to issue a cash dividend of NT$1.33 per share, Taiwan Cement dismissed market rumors that it would seek a merger with Asia Cement Corp (亞洲水泥) to help it compete in China.
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
The National Stabilization Fund (NSF, 國安基金) is to continue supporting local shares, as uncertainties in international politics and the economy could affect Taiwanese industries’ global deployment and corporate profits, as well as affect stock movement and investor confidence, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The NT$500 billion (US$17.1 billion) fund would remain active in the stock market as the US’ tariff measures have not yet been fully finalized, which would drive international capital flows and global supply chain restructuring, the ministry said after the a meeting of the fund’s steering committee. Along with ongoing geopolitical risks and an unfavorable
RSS