China unveils new jet
China's first home-made passenger airliner rolled off a production line in Shanghai yesterday in an event hailed as a milestone in the nation's ambition to become a giant of the global aviation industry.
The mid-range ARJ-21, which stands for "Advance Regional Jetliner for the 21st Century," was unveiled at its assembly plant in a glitzy nationally televised ceremony which was as much an advertisement for potential customers around the world as a boost to national pride.
The new jet has been dubbed the Xiangfeng (翔鳳), or "Flying Phoenix."
Built by the China Aviation Industry Corp, the country's biggest military aircraft maker, the planes have a capacity of 70 to 90 seats.
The ARJ-21 is expected to make its first test flight in March and enter commercial operation by late 2009, when mass production of the aircraft is set to begin.
Deutsche Bank buys stake
Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's largest bank, announced that it bought a 60 percent stake in Taiwan's Far Eastern Alliance Asset Management Co (遠東大聯合投信).
The investment-management company will be jointly owned by the Frankfurt-based bank with Far Eastern International Bank (遠東銀行), which holds the remaining 40 percent, Deutsche Bank said on its Web site on Wednesday.
The firm will be renamed Deutsche Far Eastern Asset Management Co. The price of the purchase, which needs regulatory approval, wasn't disclosed.
"The transaction is in line with the objectives for our asset management division in Asia, namely, having leading platforms in core large and growing economies focused on global products and alternative investments," said James Wu (吳均龐), Deutsche Bank's chief country officer in Taiwan.
Jobless rate inches up
Taiwan's jobless rate rose from close to the lowest in a year as companies hired fewer workers amid concern a slowing global economy will cool export growth.
The seasonally adjusted rate rose to 3.93 percent last month from 3.89 percent in October, the statistics bureau said in Taipei yesterday.
The median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was 3.9 percent.
The jobless rate fell to a five-year low of 3.83 percent in October last year.
Economic expansion may slow to about 4.53 percent next year from a projected 5.46 percent this year, government forecasts say. Growth in exports, which account for half of the economy, slowed to 11.8 percent last month from 14.4 percent the previous month.
Without adjusting for seasonal factors, the jobless rate dropped to 3.87 percent from 3.92 percent in October, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said. The number of people unemployed declined to 417,000 from 421,000 in the previous month.
Bank of Taiwan raises rates
State-run Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) yesterday raised interest rates by 0.06-0.08 percentage points for all deposits denominated in New Taiwan dollars following the central bank's 0.125 percentage point hike for its key interest rates. It was also the bank's 14th straight interest rate hike.
The move was aimed at matching the central bank's monetary policy as well as reflecting current money market trends. The new rates apply only to deposits and will take effect on Monday.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday gained by NT$0.011 to close at NT$32.485 against the greenback in Taipei yesterday on turnover of US$771 million.
AI SPLURGE: The four major US tech companies have lost more than US$950 billion in value since releasing earnings and outlooks, while equipment makers were gaining Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that would reach about US$650 billion this year — a flood of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear within them. The spending planned by Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp, all in pursuit of dominance in the still-nascent market for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, is a boom without a parallel this century. Each of the companies’ estimates for this year is expected either near or surpass their budgets for the past three years combined. They would set a high-watermark for capital spending
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Bank of America Corp nearly doubled its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year, adding to a slew of upgrades even after a rip-roaring last year propelled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI). The firm lifted its projection to 8 percent from 4.5 percent on “relentless global demand” for the hardware that Taiwanese companies make, according to a note dated yesterday by analysts including Xiaoqing Pi (皮曉青). Taiwan’s GDP expanded 8.63 percent last year, the fastest pace since 2010. The increase “reflects our sustained optimism over Taiwan’s technology driven expansion and is reinforced by several recent developments,” including a more stable currency,
COLLABORATION: Taiwan and the US could jointly find solutions to weaknesses in supply chain resilience for critical materials, focusing on mining and initial refinement Taiwan is likely to purchase rare earths from the US in the future, and is also in talks with Australia and Canada to strengthen global rare earth supply chain security, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Taiwan and the US last month concluded the sixth Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue, during which both sides signed a joint statement endorsing the principles of the Pax Silica Declaration, pledging to deepen cooperation in areas including critical minerals. At the time, Kung said the two sides would establish working groups to advance cooperation in areas including artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, critical materials and
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