State-run utility Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it was “highly possible” the company could turn its financial situation around this year after reporting profits from May on the back of lower fuel costs.
The New Taiwan dollar’s appreciation against the US dollar and higher summer electricity rates also boosted the company’s bottom line, Taipower chairman Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said.
Electricity rates are about 20 percent higher on average during the summer, while power consumption usually soars 40 percent over other seasons because of higher temperatures, Taipower data showed.
Photo: CNA
Revenue rose 16 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year to NT$409.3 billion (US$13.44 billion), while fuel costs fell about 7 percent, the company said.
Pretax losses narrowed sharply to NT$15.5 billion from NT$60.2 billion a year earlier, and the firm’s gross margin improved to 0.15 percent from minus-11.87 percent, company data showed.
That was the first time in about four years that Taipower’s gross margin returned to positive territory.
The figures suggest that “it is highly possible for the company to break even this year,” Tseng said.
What remains at stake is resolving Taipower’s accumulated losses of more than NT$400 billion, which would require government subsidies to clear, he added.
Despite the improvement to its bottom line, it is unclear if Taipower would again freeze electricity rates in October after it kept rates unchanged in April.
The company is slated to review rates next month, with any adjustments to be determined by the government’s electricity price review committee, Taipower spokesman Tsai Chih-meng (蔡志孟) said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
RSS