ENERGY
Taipower, CPC start project
State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) yesterday launched a joint plan to explore geothermal energy in Yilan County. A ceremony was held at the site of the planned Renze No. 3 Geothermal Well in Yilan to mark the beginning of the project, under which work is to be undertaken to drill a total of six exploratory wells before June 2021, the two companies said. CPC chairman Tai Chein (戴謙) said the exploration project, forecast to produce installed capacity totaling 8 megawatts of electricity if successful, is being carried out in three stages, with the first stage involving the drilling of two 1.5km-deep wells at a cost of NT$130 million (US$4.23 million).
ELECTRONICS
HTC surges by daily limit
HTC Corp (宏達電) shares yesterday surged by the 10 percent maximum daily limit to close at NT$37.15 in Taipei trading. The strong showing came after the smartphone maker on Tuesday reported that its revenue last month grew 4.14 percent sequentially, ending four consecutive months of declines. At the same time, a monthly survey published by Steam, a video game distribution platform, showed that the HTC Vive virtual-reality headset has been gaining traction among gamers, with the number of users of the headset inching up 0.24 percentage points to 42.7 percent. The premium HTC Vive Pro also saw users rise from 2.03 percent in September to 2.27 percent last month, giving the firm a 44.97 percent share of VR headsets among Steam users.
APPAREL
Quang Viet net income rises
Garment manufacturer Quang Viet Enterprise Co (廣越) yesterday reported that net income last quarter rose 51.24 percent annually to NT$617.16 million, with revenue gaining 25.69 percent annually to NT$6.14 billion. Earnings per share were NT$7.24. The company attributed the strong showing to larger orders of higher-priced items from international clients Patagonia Inc and The North Face Inc. Order visibility is clear through the second quarter of next year, the company said, adding that the garment and textile sector would benefit from ongoing US-China trade tensions, as it migrated manufacturing to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries long before the row started.
INDUSTRY
Qualcomm asked for help
The Ministry of Science and Technology has proposed a plan to US-based chip designer Qualcomm Inc seeking help to upgrade the nation’s industries, ministry officials said yesterday. As part of a Fair Trade Commission-led task force responsible for monitoring how Qualcomm carries out an anti-trust settlement, the ministry has come up with three requests to Qualcomm to help the nation’s industries: assistance with developing 3D sensor technology, holding an innovation competition and hiring high-end research and development talent for a new manufacturing engineering and testing center in Hsinchu.
E-COMMERCE
PChome revenue hits record
PChome Online Inc (網路家庭), the nation’s largest online shopping Web site operator, yesterday reported that revenue last quarter rose 12.6 percent annually to NT$8.22 billion, while revenue in the first nine months of this year reached a record-high NT$24.25 billion. However, the company posted losses per share of NT$1.62, an improvement from losses per share of NT$4.03 and NT$2.75 in the first and second quarters of this year respectively.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last