Office vacancy rates fall
Vacancy rates in Taipei's Grade A office market fell in the second quarter to 10.5 percent from 14.1 percent in the first quarter, the Jones Lang LaSalle real estate agency said yesterday.
This is the lowest rate in over two years, the statement said.
It is estimated that 14,500-ping of Grade A office space was absorbed in the first quarter. In the first half of the year, the market has absorbed 40 percent more Grade A office space than in all of last year, Jones Lang LaSalle said.
The agency predicts the vacancy rate will to continue drop in the third quarter, but no significant fall in net effective rents for the quarter, it added.
Carrefour must pay fines: FTC
The Fair Trade Commission ruled yesterday that Carrefour Taiwan Corp has to pay NT$700,000 worth of fines for airing misleading commercials, and must stop the advertisements immediately.
In an attempt to lure customers, Carrefour launched last year commercials promising to give consumers cash discount coupons. The retailer, however failed to disclose the preconditions and expiration dates of the coupons.
The company therefore has violated Article 21 of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法) and the ads should no longer be aired, the commission said in the statement.
Fubon changes heads
Co-chief executive officer Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday replaced retiring Yu Cheng (俞政) as chairman at both the financial-service company and its subsidiary Fubon Commercial Bank (富邦銀行) following a board meeting, the company said in a statement.
After working at Fubon for over five years, Yu has helped the company increase its revenue by an annual 15 percent, with NT$2 earnings per share, the statement said. Yu was vice governor of the nation's central bank before joining the bank.
Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the younger brother of Daniel Tsai, will fill the position of Fubon Financial's vice chairman, the statement added.
Internet calls available
PC Home Online (網路家庭), the nation's fourth largest Internet portal, yesterday kicked off a test version of an Internet voice-call service in partnership with global peer-to-peer (P2P) telephony company Skype Technologies SA, the company said in a statement.
P2P Internet phones enable users to make voice calls using their Internet connections. The voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP) concept was developed by Skype, headquartered in London. Over 15 million users have downloaded the software since it became available on Aug. 29 last year, the statement said.
PC Home will officially launch the nation's first Internet voice call "PCHome-Skype" later this month, the statement noted.
Hon Hai, Wistron win order
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Wistron Corp (緯創資通) have won an order for about 2 million personal computers from Gateway Inc, which is trying to cut cost by buying from Taiwanese suppliers, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.
Gateway will switch orders away from EMachines supplier Trigem Computer Inc of South Korea to Hon Hai for the first time, the report said. Hon Hai will get about two thirds of the orders, and the remainder will go to Wistron, the report said.
NT dollar climbs
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday turned strong against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.076 to close at NT$33.699 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$443 million.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
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