Reserves up on currency gains
The nation’s foreign-exchange reserves totaled US$393.33 billion last month, up US$4.15 billion from the previous month, because of gains on the euro and other major reserve currencies, as well as returns on reserves management strategy, the central bank said in a statement yesterday.
The euro and other major currencies continued to appreciate against the US dollar — the base currency — last month, making foreign-exchange reserves denominated in those currencies worth more, the central bank said.
The market value of securities and deposits held by foreign portfolio investors as at the end of last month was US$201.2 billion, equivalent to 51 percent of the nation’s foreign-exchange reserves, the bank said.
Taiwan remained the world’s fourth-largest holder of foreign-exchange reserves, behind China, Japan and Russia.
Chinese bond rules relaxed
The Financial Supervisory Commission said it would further relax investment restrictions and allow local banks to buy government and corporate bonds in China.
Commission official Chiu Shu-chen (邱淑貞) said late on Thursday that the move would help improve local banks’ earnings. He said some Chinese bonds have an interest rate of about 3 percent. Taiwanese bond interest rates hover just below 2 percent.
Under the Economic Co--operation Framework Agreement (ECFA), several local banks have set up subsidiaries in China, but they are barred from engaging in yuan-denominated deals in their first two years of operation.
However, officials said their overseas branches that are not regulated by China would soon be able to buy Chinese bonds.
Yang Ming eyes bigger vessels
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), the nation’s No. 2 -container shipper, said on Thursday it plans to submit a proposal to the company’s board next week to order five ships capable of carrying up to 16,000 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers.
Yang Ming chairman Frank Lu (盧峰海) said on the sidelines of a legislative session that if his proposal is passed, the firm would get vessels twice the capacity of its current 8,000-TEU vessels. He said the world’s biggest container vessel is 18,000-TEU and building larger vessels is a trend among shippers.
Yang Ming has ordered 12,000-TEU vessels from Taiwan-based China Shipbuilding Corp (CSBC, 台灣國際造船) and it is scheduled to receive the ships next year.
Meanwhile, Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the nation’s largest and the world’s fourth-largest shipper, owns 7,000-TEU vessels and it has commissioned CSBC to build it 8,000-TEU vessels, which are scheduled to be delivered in 2013.
Concept ‘green’ cars unveiled
Feng Chia University in Taichung on Thursday unveiled the first hydrogen fuel station in the nation that supplies biologically produced hydrogen.
Two mini hydrogen concept cars were also introduced at the launch ceremony and there was a demonstration of how to change the biohydrogen batteries in the vehicles. The technology was developed in a joint collaboration between the university, the National Science Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Energy which began in 1998.
Researchers succeeded in using microbiological technology to produce hydrogen fuel from agricultural waste. The cars, each fueled by six containers of hydrogen, produce no air pollutants, only water, the university’s vice president, Lee Bing-jean (李秉乾), said.
The concept cars will be test driven by students for a year, with the evaluations and results recorded for future hydrogen energy research, the university said.
Staff writer, with agencies
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors