TRANSPORTATION
Ministries mull EV tax
The Ministry of Finance yesterday refused to say whether it would continue to exempt electric vehicles (EVs) from a sales levy next year, adding that the Ministry of Economic Affairs was drafting a bill on the industry’s development. The finance ministry has exempted EVs from the tax to help boost sales, but the measure is to expire in January. The finance ministry said it would take cues from the economic ministry on the issue. Without the exemption, people would be required to pay NT$6,000 more to buy an electric scooter and an additional NT$400,000 to buy an electric car, local media said.
AIRLINES
Chicago service launched
EVA Airways (長榮航空) yesterday launched direct flights between Taipei and Chicago in a bid to extend its reach in the North American market. EVA said it would operate four round-trip flights per week using one of its latest-model Boeing Co 777-300ER aircraft configured for 333 passengers. EVA, which has more flights and seat capacity between North America and Taiwan than any other airline, said it hopes to elevate its market presence through the new service to the US city, which attracts more than 40 million travelers per year. With more direct flight destinations, EVA can offer greater flexibility, especially for transit passengers, who can now extend their journeys to and from Southeast Asia, EVA chairman Lin Pao-shui (林寶水) said at a ceremony to mark the maiden flight. With the launch of the new route, EVA operates 77 flights per week between Taiwan and destinations in North America, including Chicago, Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Toronto and Vancouver. There are also to be extra flights on the Taipei-Seattle route from Dec. 8, increasing the number of weekly services from seven to 10 and the total number of flights between Taiwan and North America to 80, Lin added.
ELECTRONICS
FTC approves Epson deal
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday approved Epson Taiwan Technology & Trading Ltd’s (臺灣愛普生) planned acquisition of repair and maintenance company TekCare Corp (捷修網). The commission said that after consulting local repair and maintenance service providers, it decided that the deal would not monopolize the market. Epson Taiwan subsidiary epMall Co Ltd (愛普網) is to increase its stake in TekCare from 30 percent to 100 percent via the deal, the commission said.
DISPLAYMAKERS
Giantplus net income falls
Flat-panel maker Giantplus Technology Co (凌巨科技) yesterday reported a significant decline in net income for last quarter due to the rising cost of new product development. The company’s net profit last quarter dropped significantly to NT$27.76 million (US$879,483), compared with NT$346.78 million in the same period last year. The result also marked a plunge from the previous quarter’s NT$205.87 million, the firm’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. The earnings result marked the firm’s worst performance in the past six quarters. Giantplus attributed the decline to costs associated with new products and currency exchange losses. The firm’s combined net profit in the first three quarters of this year totaled NT$364.46 million, up 4.58 percent from NT$348.47 million in the same period last year, the filing showed.
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
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
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