Former EVA Air Corp (長榮航空) chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) yesterday completed his exit from the company as he prepares to reenter the industry with his own carrier, StarLux Airlines (星宇航空).
Although Chang remains a major shareholder in the company with a 11.45 percent stake, after its board of directors election yesterday he has made a clean exit from EVA Air.
With his stake, Chang could have appointed up to two representatives on EVA Air’s board, market commentators have said.
Photo: Wang Yi-hong, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, leadership of the company has been fully secured by Chang Kuo-hua (張國華), Chang Kuo-wei’s elder brother, who has prevailed in the succession battle that followed the death last year of Evergreen Group (長榮集團) founder Chang Yung-fa (張榮發).
EVA Air chairman Steve Lin (林寶水) gave shareholders a cautious outlook on earnings for the second half of this year, saying that the company is expecting to see a recovery in the peak summer season, but prospects are not as favorable as in previous years.
Lin said that the carrier expects to see its load factor increase by 20 percent annually, as efforts from the past two years to improve transfer routes in North America and Southeast Asia begin to take hold.
In addition, the company is to be the first Taiwanese carrier to deploy the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner in the second half of this year, Lin said.
EVA Air president Derek Chen (陳憲弘) said that after the Boeing 787 is operational, the company would adjust its fleet allocations to destinations in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, and expand coverage of regional routes.
In the past decade, New Zealand and Australia have become more sensitive to seasonality, as more tourists are traveling, Chen said.
Lin also gave well-wishes for StarLux Airlines, and said that EVA Air is focused on competing against larger regional carriers and is not threatened by the new venture.
The company posted a net loss of NT$738 million (US$24.33 million) in the first quarter due to rising fuel prices during the period, which surged from about US$40 per barrel a year earlier to US$60, adding pressure to the carrier’s annual usage of about 14.72 million barrels.
The company is also facing labor relations issues as it begins negotiating a request by its employees to form a union, Chen said, adding that more favorable terms for employees are dependent on market conditions.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six