TELECOMS
APT adding base stations
Asia Pacific Telecom Co (APT, 亞太電信), a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday said it is stepping up its base station deployment by building more than 1,000 new small-cell stations for its 2,600-megahertz and 700-megahertz bands at railway stations, tourist sites and restaurants nationwide. APT expects the number of its base stations to reach 25,000 by the end of this quarter. The telecom operated about 7,725 4G base stations as of January. Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星), which is contending with APT to be the nation’s No. 4 telecom, last week said it had built 11,093 4G base stations as of the end of last month. Taiwan Star also said its revenue grew 19 percent year-on-year to NT$3.43 billion (US$116.6 million) in the first quarter of the year, boosted by more usage of higher-value services. Taiwan Star said it has accumulated half a million active users of its apps.
AUTO PARTS
Cryomax shares soar
Shares of Cryomax Cooling System Corp (吉茂), a Changhua-headquartered auto parts supplier, yesterday soared 26.46 percent to NT$23.9 on its debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The shares touched NT$24.2 in the early morning before retreating to the closing price, data showed. The company raised NT$154.05 million via an initial public offering. Cryomax, which mainly makes copper radiators, posted revenue of NT$295.85 million for last quarter, representing a 13.15 percent year-on-year decrease from NT$340.64 million. Despite the sluggish sales performance, the company gave a relatively positive business outlook, saying that it is likely to enter the supply chain of electric car brands through a collaboration with Japan’s Denso Corp, a tier-one supplier in the global automotive industry.
IC DESIGN
Alchip profit increases
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), which provides silicon intellectual property and design services to semiconductor firms, yesterday posted NT$20 million in net profit for February, a 1.37-fold increase from the previous year. Revenue leaped 1.37-fold to NT$293 million year-on-year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company last year swung into a net profit of NT$308 million, benefiting from growing shipments of high-performance chips from China and Japan. That translated into earnings per share of NT$5.08. Revenue last year rose 15.57 year-on-year to NT$4.27 billion.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Tensions weigh on NT dollar
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell NT$0.123 against the greenback to close at NT$29.425 on the back of fund outflows from the nation, dealers said. Geopolitical tension following airstrikes by a US-led coalition against Syria and concerns over an acceleration in interest rate increases in the US unsettled the nerves of many currency traders, they said. In addition, a live-fire military exercise planned by China’s People’s Liberation Army in the Taiwan Strait tomorrow raised concerns over cross-strait stability, prompting currency traders to dump the NT dollar, they added. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last week announced that China would further open its markets to foreign investors, a move that drove foreign investors to move their funds out of Taiwan in preparation for investment in China, they said.
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