CHIPMAKERS
TSMC sales up 4.4%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday reported that sales for last month hit the second-highest monthly level in its history, after August’s, up 4.4 percent to NT$106.04 billion (US$3.49 billion) from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to strong global demand for high-end smartphones and high-performance computing devices. In the first 10 months of the year, it posted NT$858.79 billion in consolidated sales, up 1.8 percent from a year earlier.
SOFTWARE
HTC touts Adidas job
HTC Corp (宏達電) has been working with the German footwear company Adidas AG to optimize its design and production process. Using its VIVE VR System and The Wild software, HTC has helped Adidas create a virtual space to asses, test and change designs, all in a 3D process, while the process becomes more cost-effective for the footwear company, HTC said. HTC’s consolidated sales last month fell 49 percent from a year earlier to NT$660 million. In the first 10 months, cumulative sales fell 57.65 percent to NT$8.86 billion from a year earlier.
MANUFACTURING
Fulgent Sun sales up 66.9%
Shoemaker Fulgent Sun International Holding Co (鈺齊國際) on Friday said last month’s sales soared 66.9 percent year-on-year to NT$952 million, its highest-ever for October. It started shipments of spring and summer shoes last month and was optimistic about its business outlook for this quarter and early next year, Fulgent said in a statement. Sales in the first 10 months totaled NT$10.33 billion, up 30.05 percent from NT$7.95 billion in the same period last year and compared with the NT$10.07 billion for the whole of last year, it 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