Hi-Life to join Sunda Post
Hi-Life International Co (萊爾富), the nation's third-largest convenience store chain, yesterday announced an alliance with the private postal firm Sunda Post (上大郵通) to offer 24-hour mail collection services. With no more than 100 units, the mail would only be charged NT$3 each when each unit weighs under 100g, said Hi-Life, which offers such services in its 1,300 outlets nationwide.
The new service would greatly benefit restaurants, clothing stores and hair salons for mailing a large amount of coupons, or insurance and direct selling firms when mailing catalogues and flysheets, it added.
Before the service is available, Sunda Post would have to pick up mail at its customers' places for delivery as only the state-run Taiwan Post Co (臺灣郵政) has mailboxes set up on the streets.
Minicar recall excludes orders
Those who had placed orders for Smart ForTwo minicars need not to worry, as the latest recall did not affect them, the Taiwan branch of German-US automaker DaimlerChrysler said yesterday.
"Pre-order of the cars started in April and we haven't yet brought them to Taiwan's market, except for one test drive unit," a company's public relation source said.
The orders, currently amount to around 20 units, will be delivered only starting from next month, so buyers could be rest assured their cars are not affected by the problem, she said.
Worldwide, DaimlerChrysler will recall 1,650 Smart ForTwo minicars to check for steering problems.
Ministry gives go-ahead
Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) yesterday confirmed that the ministry will give the go-ahead to Chinese investment projects from four chip testers and packagers in a regular review this week -- Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), Greatek Electronics Inc (超豐) and Walton Advanced Engineering Inc (華東科技).
Chen said government official across the board found their investments would not bring a negative impact on local industry. Besides, those companies promised to invest more in their operation at home, he said.
CEPD approves power plants
The Council for Economic Planning and Development has approved a Ministry of Economic Affairs proposal to build offshore wind power plants, a spokesman said yesterday.
Taiwan theoretically has about 9 million kilowatts of potential wind power in costal areas, but only 1.2 million kilowatts of offshore wind power are exploitable after various restrictions are excluded, the spokesman said.
In order to ensure steady development, the government decided to implement the project in several phases, with the maximum wind power projected for the first phase set at 300,000kw.
IT firms to tour Vietnam
A delegation of Taiwanese computer firms is scheduled to make a five-day visit to Vietnam from July 1 to July 5 to seek new trade opportunities.
According to the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會), the delegation will be headed by TCA board member Wang Chao-chun (王超群), chairman of Taipei-based LEO Systems Inc (國眾). Members of the group include senior executives of more than 10 companies in the information technology sector such as Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Tatung Co (大同) and Syscom Computer Engineering Co (凌群電腦).
During the delegation's stay in Ho Chih Minh City, it will attend a trade fair and visit IT-related associations and companies.
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS