China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) shares yesterday fell below its book value due to concerns over an estimated NT$500 million (US$15.37 million) operating losses in the wake of a day-long strike last week.
CAL shares fell 1.98 percent to NT$9.9, compared with a 0.21 percent decline by the TAIEX to 8,458.87 points.
Strike-related losses comprises of NT$300 million in lost ticket sales due to flight disruptions and NT$200 million in projected reparations for affected passengers and travel agencies, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The state-run carrier said in a separate filing that its annual payroll costs would increase by NT$550 million, as the company has agreed to adjust wages as demanded by the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union.
The additional payroll cost is the direct result of raising the hourly stipend for overseas stationing from US$3 to US$5 per hour, CAL said.
Affected passengers are to receive US$100 in compensation, the company said, adding that it will also provide air and ground transportation for the passengers.
The day-long strike resulted in the cancellation of more than 120 CAL flights, leaving about 30,000 passengers stranded at airports in Taiwan and abroad.
CAL is to continue reassessing and optimizing flight operation efficiency to minimize impact on costs and earnings, the company said.
As of the end of the first quarter, CAL’s passenger load factor — a measure of utilization and operation efficiency for the transportation sector, was 77.9 percent, down 0.5 percent from a year ago, JPMorgan Securities LLC analyst Corrine Png (方華婷) said in a report last month.
In the first four months, CAL’s aggregate revenue passenger kilometer (RPK) — which measures revenues and costs on a unit basis — gained 5 percent annually to NT$12,724, Png said.
During the same period, rival EVA Airways’ (長榮航空) passenger load factor was 81.6 percent, up 0.8 percent from a year ago, while its RPK rose 17.6 percent annually to NT$13,083, Png said.
EVA Airways shares dipped 0.33 percent to NT$14.9 yesterday.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”