TRAVEL
Scooting to Narita
Singapore-based budget airline Scoot announced on Friday it is to resume flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Narita International Airport in Japan on Sept. 9. The carrier, which suspended flights destined for the Taoyuan facility on March 22, plans to operate one round-trip flight a week on that route using a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, it said. It resumed flights between Taoyuan and Singapore last month and flights between Taoyuan and Seoul earlier this month. Scoot’s move followed an announcement by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines on Thursday that it would resume its Amsterdam-Taoyuan passenger service tomorrow.
HEALTH
ITRI’s ventilator approved
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to manufacture and sell a ventilator it developed based on US manufacturer Medtronic’ specifications for its PB 560 portable ventilator. The ITRI’s ventilator received Emergency Use Authorization from the agency on Aug. 12 and can be used to aid patients with respiratory failure, Biomedical Technology and Device Research Laboratories director Lin Chii-wann (林啟萬) said on Thursday. The institute plans to make 10 ventilators during a trial period before November, and is recruiting manufacturers to scale up production, with the goal of producing 100 ventilators by the end of June next year. The ITRI began working on the ventilator in late March, after Medtronic shared the design of its PB 560 ventilator to accelerate ventilator production amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It took the institute only 17 days to source the more than 500 components needed to build a prototype, the ITRI said.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
AVIATION: Despite production issues in the US, the Taoyuan-based airline expects to receive 24 passenger planes on schedule, while one freight plane is delayed The ongoing strike at Boeing Co has had only a minor impact on China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), although the delivery of a new cargo jet might be postponed, CAL chairman Hsieh Su-chien (謝世謙) said on Saturday. The 24 Boeing 787-9 passenger aircraft on order would be delivered on schedule from next year to 2028, while one 777F freight aircraft would be delayed, Hsieh told reporters at a company event. Boeing, which announced a decision on Friday to cut 17,000 jobs — about one-tenth of its workforce — is facing a strike by 33,000 US west coast workers that has halted production
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
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