INVESTMENT
Offshore fund sales growing
Taiwan’s offshore fund sales last month increased for the 11th consecutive month to NT$3.44 trillion (US$114.3 billion), up 0.29 percent from September and expanding 12 percent from December last year, according to the latest tallies compiled by the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA, 投信投顧公會). Equity, bond and balanced funds all saw sales grow noticeably last month, with increases of NT$6.8 billion, NT$18.8 billion and NT$2.9 billion from the previous month respectively, JPMorgan Asset Management Taiwan Ltd (摩根資產管理) said on Friday.
BANKING
Yuan deposits reach 314bn
Yuan deposits held by banks operating in Taiwan rose for the sixth consecutive month last month, the central bank said on Wednesday last week. Yuan deposits totaled 314.305 billion yuan (US$47.374 billion) at the end of last month, the highest value since March last year’s 314.315 billion yuan. That was up 1.485 billion yuan, or 0.47 percent, from the end of September, with deposits held by local banks’ domestic banking units totaling 283.089 billion yuan, an increase of 2.488 billion yuan from a month earlier, and those held by offshore units hitting 31.216 billion yuan, down 1.003 billion yuan month-on-month.
INDUSTRY
Tongtai posts NT$105m loss
Machinery maker Tongtai Machine and Tool Co Ltd (東台精機) last week reported net losses of NT$105 million for the first three quarters of this year due to foreign exchange losses and a one-off restructuring expense. Losses per share were NT$0.43 over the nine-month period. Gross margin remained 22 percent in the first three quarters, while cumulative revenue grew 4.08 percent year-on-year to NT$6.94 billion.
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