FOOD AND BEVERAGE
UPE’s net income drops
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (UPE, 統一企業), the nation’s largest food and beverage conglomerate, yesterday reported an annual decline in net income for last year, affected by lower contributions from its subsidiaries amid rising prices of raw materials and the COVID-19 pandemic. Its consolidated net profit was NT$19.88 billion (US$699.14 million) last year, down 7.7 percent from a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$3.5, down from NT$3.79 in 2020. Consolidated revenue rose 5.9 percent year-on-year to NT$473.5 billion. Of Tainan-based UPE’s Taiwan subsidiaries, President Chain Store Corp’s (統一超商) net profit fell 13.4 percent, while Ton Yi Industrial Corp’s (統一實業) surged 101 percent from a year earlier, company data showed. Its Chinese unit, Uni-President China Holdings Ltd’s (統一中國控股) net profit dropped 7.7 percent.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Motive sets up Taipei hub
UK-based Motive Offshore Group, which specializes in the design, manufacture, rental and inspection of marine and lifting equipment, yesterday said that it has set up a renewables hub in Taipei with an operational base near the Port of Taichung. Since entering the local market in 2018, the group has played an instrumental role in the development and commissioning of offshore wind projects, as well as deploying multi-sector solutions to support the local supply chain, it said in a statement. The new facility has already resulted in the creation of 10 jobs in Taipei, it said. To enhance local trade and investment in the region, Motive has joined forces with specialist organizations V-TES Renewables and PanGeo Subsea — which are based in Aberdeen, Scotland —to establish the Subsea Cable Alliance. The alliance would consolidate a complex local trade landscape through a single partner, resulting in reduced time and costs for logistics and contractual resources while enhancing vessel uptime, Motive said.
COMPUTERS
Quanta, Compal report sales
Contract notebook computer makers Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) yesterday reported that their sales for last month were a record for February, although they were lower than the previous month, as there were fewer working days because of the Lunar New Year holiday. Revenue at Quanta decreased 10 percent month-on-month, but increased 13.2 percent year-on-year to NT$90.69 billion, the company said in a statement. It shipped 4.8 million notebook computers last month, down 1.2 million units from January. Quanta forecast that its first-quarter notebook shipments would perform better than previously, dropping less than 20 percent from a quarter earlier. Compal said in a separate statement that its sales declined 0.3 percent monthly, but rose 16.7 percent annually to NT$82.44 billion. It shipped 3.6 million laptops last month, flat from a month earlier, the company said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Vanguard’s sales jump
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$4.25 billion for last month, up 50.72 percent from NT$2.82 billion a year earlier, it said in a news release. “Due to an increase of shipments and a better product mix, net sales for February increased about 1.56 percent compared with NT$4,179 million the previous month,” Vanguard chief financial officer Amanda Huang (黃惠蘭) said in the release. Cumulative sales from January to last month increased 50.53 percent from NT$5.596 billion in the same period last year, the firm said.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
FORESEEABLE CONSEQUENCES: New technology always comes with new innovations by the iniquitous in exploiting users for financial gain or more nefarious ends Artificial intelligence (AI) “agents” say they can save users time and energy by automating tasks, but the growing power of systems such as OpenClaw is putting cybersecurity experts on edge. Powered by a wave of hype, OpenClaw today says it has more than three million users worldwide. The system allows users to create so-called agents, tools based on a large language model (LLM) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic PBC’s Claude, that can carry out online tasks. “We’ve moved from an AI you could talk with via a chatbot to an agentic AI, which can take action... the threat and the risks are