Gross margin rose to 55.8 percent, up 2.44 percentage points from 53.36 percent in the first quarter and ending four consecutive quarters of declines, said the leading maker of optical lens modules, which also produces VCMs and sleep monitoring systems. In the second quarter of last year, gross margin was 60.29 percent, company data showed. Nonoperating gains contributed NT$2.17 billion, including foreign exchange gains of NT$1.79 billion, Largan said. In the first half of this year, Largan’s revenue totaled NT$19.81 billion, down 10 percent from NT$21.93 billion a year earlier. It reported net profit of NT$10.46 billion, up 26 percent year-on-year, or earnings per share of NT$78.36, and gross margin of 54.55 percent.

TPP urges Chen to review himselfBy Lee I-chia / Staff reporterThe Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislative caucus yesterday urged Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) to submit a self-review report on his COVID-19 prevention performance before he resigns to run for Taipei mayor. The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Central Executive Committee yesterday nominated Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), as the party’s Taipei mayoral candidate. TPP Legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) said that about 20,000 to 30,000 local COVID-19 cases are still being reported every day, but Chen is “running away” from his job without finishing it, which was irresponsible. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Tsai Pi-ru, third right, eats shaved ice with Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan, second right, and party Chairman Ko Wen-je, right, in Yunlin on Sunday. TPP legislative caucus office director Chen Wan-hui (陳琬惠), who is running for Yilan County Commissioner, said of a local government head should be trustworthy, responsible and put people first.

Japanese horseradish farmers fear for future amid climate changeWasabi, essential for sushi, is usually grown along streams in narrow valleys, leaving farms prone to disastersBy Irene Wang / Reuters, TOKYOMasahiro Hoshina, a Japanese farmer, starts worrying about typhoon season months before it begins, haunted by memories of the heavy rains and landslides that washed away wasabi farms during one 2019 storm. It’s getting stronger,” said the 70-year-old farmer in Okutama, west of downtown Tokyo. The need for replanting and careful tending meant it’s taken nearly three years for sushi farms there to recover. Wasabi Farmer, Masahiro Hoshina, 72, in May grates a harvested wasabi root on a slat for his lunch, at his house in Okutama Town, Tokyo, Japan. “In the past, we served all the cold soba noodles with a piece of raw wasabi, but now we can no longer do that,” Onishi said.

Euro edges closer to US dollar parity‘DIRECT EXPOSURE’: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine worsened the eurozone’s growth outlook, weighing on the euro, while the Fed’s rate hikes have boosted the US dollarBloombergEurope’s common currency yesterday edged closer toward parity with the US dollar as energy concerns and the risk of recession weighed on the outlook for the eurozone, while risk aversion fueled a broad rally in the greenback. The euro dropped as much as 1.3 percent to US$1.0005, eclipsing its low from last week. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index has jumped as much as 1.2 percent so far this week. “Often people would look at a weaker euro and say that’s good for exports,” McKeown said. The bank is pricing the euro to move in between a range of 0.95 to parity against the US dollar, he said.

Even among respondents who identified with the TPP, only 2 percent said that they would cast their ballot for the party’s candidate. In comparison, Yilan County Commissioner Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who is seeking re-election, garnered the support of 71 percent of respondents who identified with the TPP. These results show a number of trends:First, apart from the TPP’s chairman, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), no TPP candidates have the support of the majority of respondents who identify with the party. People who identify with the TPP seem to be extremely pragmatic when it comes to elections — they would rather vote for KMT candidates who have a strong chance of winning than for their own party. It looks as though TPP candidates in the mayoral and county commissioner elections will not only fail to act as “mother hens” who can consolidate votes for their party, but they will be sidelined by strategic voting among TPP supporters.

Tainan man arrested over threats against Tsai on PTTCOPYCAT THREAT? “If it was me I would also want to shoot and kill President Tsai Ing-wen,” the man allegedly wrote on Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the nation’s largest online bulletin board system. A screen grab shows a message posted by a man claimed to kill President Tsai Ing-wen. Photo courtesy of Tainan PolicePolice said that the man is also suspected of making threatening comments on PTT about Abe and the man suspected of killing the former Japanese leader in Naha, Japan, on Friday. Police said they ruled out the possibility that the man would seek to harm Tsai.

Team successfully tests domestically made rocketGREAT PROGRESS: The HTTP-3A is the first hybrid rocket in the world to have guidance and control technology — a major technological breakthrough, the ARRC director saidBy Wu Po-hsuan, Tsai Chang-sheng and William Hetherington / Staff reporters, with staff writerResearchers from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University’s Advanced Rocket Research Center (ARRC) yesterday successfully tested the second-stage propulsion system of a domestically designed rocket. The HTTP-3A hybrid sounding rocket launches yesterday from a site at Syuhai Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township. Researchers from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University’s Advanced Rocket Research Center (ARRC) yesterday successfully tested the second-stage propulsion system of a domestically designed rocket. “The HTTP-3A is the world’s first hybrid rocket with guidance and control technology. The launch allowed the team to test its self-developed, six degrees of freedom mission-analysis simulator, called ZIYASim, he said, adding that it was the first successful rocket launch at the launch site.

Flags to fly at half-mast to honor Abe‘FOREVER MISSED’: Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe had planned to visit Taiwan and address the legislature, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun saidStaff writer, with CNAPresident Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday ordered public institutions to fly the nation’s flag at half-mast tomorrow to honor former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was killed on Friday after being shot during a campaign event in western Japan. All Taiwanese flags at government buildings and public schools across Taiwan will be flown at half-mast for one day to honor Abe’s decades-long contributions to promoting bilateral ties between Taiwan and Japan, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said in a statement. The move is also intended to show that Taiwan stands with Japan in firmly defending freedom and democracy, Chang said, adding that Abe was a staunch supporter of Taiwan. A woman looks on as a man writes a message on a wall along Taipei’s Qingcheng Street, near the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association headquarters, to commemorate former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot dead on Friday. Abe died on Friday evening, at the age of 67, hours after being shot twice during an election campaign in Nara, Japan.

Commodities slump to give India relief from inflationBloombergIndia’s policymakers and consumers would be cheering a steep slump in commodities, especially palm oil, which could bring about a few months of “surprisingly low” food inflation. India is the world’s biggest buyer of edible oils and relies on imports for about 60 percent of its needs. Palm oil, which rallied after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as Indonesia temporarily banned exports, has plunged 40 percent from a record close in April. The average retail prices of edible oils in India have dropped as much as 8 percent in the past month, government data showed. The sharp declines in palm oil, wheat, sugar and rice are good news for inflation, ING Group said.

About 10,000 people were camped near the remote Amarnath temple, nestled in a Himalayan mountain cave, when a sudden cloudburst triggered a deluge. Soldiers in Baltal Base Camp in Indian-administered Kashmir yesterday carry a person recovered after a flash flood swept away hundreds of tents near a popular Hindu pilgrimage site. Photo: AFP“We found 16 bodies so far and at least 40 are missing,” an official from the state disaster response agency said. The annual pilgrimage sees hundreds of thousands of people trek up for days through rugged mountain passes to reach the shrine. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several senior government officials expressed their grief over the loss of lives.

Exports gain for 24th month in a rowHEADWINDS: The Ministry of Finance expects the uptrend in exports to be muted given a high base last year and softening demand due to surging global inflationBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterExports last month surged 15.2 percent year-on-year to US$42.2 billion, the second highest on record and 24th straight month of gains, as global demand for electronics remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest chipmaker, posted its second-highest revenue of NT$175.8 billion (US$5.9 billion). That was despite exports to China, Taiwan’s largest trading partner, tumbling 15.8 percent to NS$941.6 billion, Tsai said. For the second quarter, exports picked up 15.4 percent to US$125.75 billion, largely in line with the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics’ forecast, data showed. For the first six months of the year, exports gained 19.2 percent to US$246.68 billion, while imports climbed 24.8 percent to US$218.97 billion, it said.

The TAIEX joined other Asian stocks falling in afternoon trading after Abe’s assassination erased gains made earlier yesterday, the exchanges’ data showed. Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei TimesTurnover on the TAIEX was NT$257.3 billion (US$8.64 billion), as foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$3.93 billion of local shares, the third-largest this week, TWSE data showed. SinoPac Securities Investment Service Corp (永豐投顧) said in a research note that it expects the TAIEX to rebound gradually after tumbling 18 percent over the past five months. Local institutional investors have a higher confidence in the local market than foreign investors, PGIM said, citing their net purchases of local shares for three weeks in a row. They bought a net NT$10.3 billion of local shares this week, the second highest in a single week this year, it said.

Last month’s revenue was up 59 percent from a year earlier and 3.4 percent higher than a month earlier, the company said. Evergreen said it plans to receive four new vessels with 24,000 TEUs each by the end of this year. However, falling freight rates lowered its annual revenue growth in the second quarter after the previous quarter’s 92 percent increase. Average freight rates for small and medium-sized vessels slid in the second quarter, as the war in Ukraine disrupted supplies of grains and raw materials. The recovery being slower than expected in China’s manufacturing activities also weighed on freight rates, it added.

Apple plans extreme sports watch with larger screen and metal casingBloombergApple Inc plans its largest smartwatch display to date, with a bigger battery and a rugged metal casing, as part of the upcoming Apple Watch geared toward extreme sports athletes, people with knowledge of the plans said. The rugged version of the Apple Watch is to feature a screen that measures about 5cm diagonally, while a new Apple Watch Series 8 is to retain the 4.8cm diagonal screen size of Series 7. A planned update to the low-end Apple Watch SE is also to retain its screen size. A person tries on an Apple Watch at one of the company’s stores in Sydney on March 18. First released in 2015, the Apple Watch has become a key piece of the company’s hardware lineup.

NATO creates new space for TaiwanBy Joseph Tse-hei Lee 李榭熙The Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as tensions in the Taiwan Strait, dominated the agenda of last week’s NATO summit in Madrid. As NATO has the Indo-Pacific region in its radar, it is paying closer attention to Taiwan’s security needs. In reality, many Indo-Pacific states are craving the attention of great powers, and the benefits and resources that might come from such interactions. Because the Indo-Pacific region is far away from launching its singular security framework like NATO, Taiwan should pursue a wide range of bilateral defense initiatives. While working with the US and NATO to improve its national defense capability, Taiwan could still partner with other Indo-Pacific powers to consolidate its sovereign status and global recognition.