REAL ESTATE
Housing slump expected
The transaction volume for residential properties across Taiwan last year was likely to set a 13-year low due to extended weakness in the property market, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) planning and research director Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said yesterday. With home sales remaining sluggish after the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections, transactions for the whole year might register less than 320,000 units nationwide, the third-lowest level in decades, Hsu said, adding that 289,000 units changed hands in 1991 and 259,000 in 2001. Both Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Taichung saw home transactions decline by 10.99 percent and 5.66 percent respectively last month from November, while transactions in Taipei, New Taipei City and Greater Taoyuan gained 13.66 percent, 11.18 percent and 4.55 percent respectively, according to H&B tallies.
BANKING
Chang Hwa names president
State-run Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) on Tuesday said its board had agreed to appoint executive vice president James Shih (施建安) as president, after a local banking conglomerate rejected the Ministry of Finance’s offer to name the candidate. The finance ministry on Dec. 10 named Chang Hwa president Chang Ming-daw (張明道) as chairman after the ministry beat the lender’s major shareholder, Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), and gained control of the lender’s board.
LIFE INSURANCE
Taiwan Life’s Jou leaves
Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) on Tuesday said its board approved the resignation of acting president David Jou (周國端), which was to take effect today. Jou, who left China’s Taikang Life Insurance Co (泰康人壽) as chief financial officer in October, would remain a board director of Taiwan Life, a company statement said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Arthritis drug in pipeline
Taiwan Liposome Co (台灣微脂體), a developer of generic drugs used to treat breast and ovarian cancer, on Tuesday said it had filed an investigational new drug application for TLC599 in Taiwan, a treatment it developed to counter arthritis, especially in small joints such as fingers. Taiwan Liposome said in a press release that if the Food and Drug Administration approves its application, the company would proceed with phase one and phase two clinical trials with about 40 subjects.
MANUFACTURING
Hon Hai wins patent suit
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Monday said that it has won a final ruling in a patent suit against Lotes Suzhou Co (得意精密電子蘇州). Hon Hai and its subsidiary, Foxconn (Kunshan) Computer Connector Co (富士康昆山電腦接插件), said Hon Hai received the final ruling from the Higher People’s Court of Jiangsu Province on Dec. 19, which upheld a ruling by the Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court that Lotes Suzhou infringed Hon Hai’s USB 3.0 patents.
BANKING
HSBC set to offer in China
HSBC Holdings PLC plans to sell the first asset-backed securities by a foreign bank in China as Beijing accelerates development of the market. The bank is to offer 1.35 billion yuan (US$217.5 million) of the notes on Jan. 15, according to a statement on the Chinabond Web site on Tuesday. Banks issued 267.7 billion yuan of notes backed by loans last year, compared with 15.8 billion yuan in 2013, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
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