■ AVIATION
Airbus spells out job cuts
European planemaker Airbus has set out details of job reductions under its Power8 restructuring plan, including 4,100 job cuts in France, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Saturday. The restructuring calls for 10,000 Europe-wide job cuts and six full or partial factory sales by 2010. The job losses are to be split between Airbus and suppliers. Airbus told employees in a works council meeting on Friday that 2,305 posts would vanish at Airbus France production sites at Toulouse, France, and 964 jobs would disappear at the company's headquarters, also in Toulouse, Le Monde reported. Hamburg, Germany will lose the biggest number of produc-tion jobs, with 2,317 posts affected, the reports said.
■ ENERGY
Zelan eyes power projects
Malaysia's Zelan Holdings is bidding for another 2 billion ringgit (US$571 million) power plant project in Indonesia as well as one in Botswana, a report said yesterday. In February, a Zelan-led consortium won a 2.12 billion ringgit project to build a coal-fired power plant in Rembang in Java, Indonesia. Zelan chief executive Albert Chang was quoted by the Edge Daily as saying that the company has tied up with China's Dongfong Electric Corp to bid for a second 600 megawatt power project at Tanjung Jati, also in Java.
■ MANUFACTURING
Hon Hai profits up 47%
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world's largest contract electro-nics manufacturer, said fourth-quarter profits rose 47 percent to NT$22 billion (US$661 million) from NT$15 billion a year earlier. The numbers were derived by subtracting nine-month profit reported earlier from full-year profit filed to the exchange on Saturday night. The Taipei-based company said last year's profit rose 41 percent to NT$59.86 billion, from NT$42.36 billion a year earlier. Full-year consolidated sales gained 39 percent to NT$1.32 trillion. Parent-company sales rose 28 percent for the year to NT$907.4 billion.
■ WEALTH
Steel baron Mittal tops list
Lakshmi Mittal, the owner of the world's largest steel company, increased his personal fortune by 29 percent in the last year and remained atop Britain's Sunday Times Rich List after he acquired rival Arcelor SA. Mittal, worth ?19.25 billion (US$38.5 billion), led the list for the third straight year, the London-based newspaper said yesterday. Roman Abramovich, the 40-year-old Russian oil billionaire and Chelsea soccer club owner, was second with a fortune of ?10.8 billion, unchanged from a year earlier. Third was the property owner the Duke of Westminster, worth ?7 billion. The country's 1,000 wealthiest individuals had their combined fortunes swell by 20 percent to ?360 billion, the Times said.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
RSS