Manufacturing sentiment dips: TIER
Taiwanese manufacturers holding a positive outlook dropped 2.3 percentage points to 25 percent, while those with a bleak view gained 9.4 percentage points to 28.9 percent, TIER found. The confidence reading for companies in the service sector came in at 95.26, up 0.6 percentage points from one month earlier, as the industry has likely bottomed out, it said. Wholesale firms are divided about the business landscape moving forward, but retailers, restaurants and financial institutions are expecting an uptick after going through rough times, TIER said. The pickup in confidence is more evident among companies involved in civil engineering projects, property development and real estate, with the gauge rising 2.04 percentage points to 98.14, it said. The property market might come out of the woods next quarter when people feel more comfortable about resuming house hunting, TIER said, adding that the COVID-19 outbreak had delayed, but not eliminated demand for housing.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2022 22:01 UTC
Nanya Technology sees mild revenue decline
Nanya Technology sees mild revenue declineBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporterDRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said it expects a mild decline in revenue this year as mounting inflation is depressing spending on consumer electronics, which has led to an inventory correction from PC and smartphone companies. “Nanya Technology has done quite a good job in the first half of this year. We hope [revenue] would drop only slightly for the whole year of this year, compared with last year,” Lee said. The company plans to deploy 10-nanometer process technology, developed entirely by the chipmaker, he said. It also plans to use extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV, tools when the chipmaker starts producing chips using fourth-generation 10-nanometer technology, it said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2022 03:18 UTC
Eurozone business growth slumps as price hikes bite
Eurozone business growth slumps as price hikes biteReuters, LONDONEurozone business growth has slowed significantly this month — and by much more than expected — as consumers concerned about soaring bills opted to stay at home and defer purchases to save money, a survey showed yesterday. “Eurozone economic growth is showing signs of faltering as the tailwind of pent-up demand from the [COVID-19] pandemic is already fading, having been offset by the cost of living shock, and slumping business and consumer confidence,” S&P Global chief business economist Chris Williamson said. The composite new business index dropped to a 16-month low of 50, the dividing line between growth and contraction, from 53.3. Growth in demand for services all but dried up, and firms faced input costs rising at a near-record rate, forcing them to pass some of that burden on to customers. “Inflows of new business have stalled, led by a slump in demand for goods and reduced demand for services from cash-strapped consumers in particular,” Williamson said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 24, 2022 00:17 UTC
Wu Bai to bring big hits to home of Rakuten Monkeys
Wu Bai to bring big hits to home of Rakuten MonkeysBy Jason Pan / Staff reporter“King of Live Music” Wu Bai and his band China Blue are to bring their big hits to the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium on Sunday in a bid to help the Rakuten Monkeys pick up some hits to stay at the top of the CPBL table this season. Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei TimesThe Monkeys said in a statement this week that Wu Bai and China Blue are to perform following their contest against the Lions on Sunday. Since 1992, Wu Bai and China Blue have had many hits in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) and Mandarin, with a huge following in Taiwan, China and Southeast Asia. Rakuten Monkeys manager Tseng Hao-chu, right, congratulates Huang Tzu-peng for his performance against the Uni-President Lions in their CPBL game in Taoyuan on Wednesday. Rock musician Wu Bai is shown in an undated promotional photograph.
Source:Taipei Times
June 23, 2022 19:04 UTC
TAIEX tumbles 2.42% as investors pocket profits
Global stock markets and oil prices also hit the skids yesterday as worries about rising interest rates and recessions persisted. In Taipei yesterday, the TAIEX closed down 380.89 points, or 2.42 percent, at 15,347.75. Turnover totaled NT$278.532 billion (US$9.35 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$22.44 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Investors would be looking for further clues about whether another 75 basis-point rate hike is on the cards for next month. Economists polled by Reuters expect the Fed to deliver a 75-basis-point interest rate hike next month, followed by a 0.5 percentage-point rise in September.
Source:Taipei Times
June 23, 2022 03:05 UTC
Lysychansk city is enduring ‘massive’ bombardment: Kyiv
Lysychansk city is enduring ‘massive’ bombardment: KyivAFP, KYIVUkrainian forces are facing “massive” and relentless artillery attacks in a battleground eastern city, Kyiv said on Tuesday. With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces tightening their grip on Severodonetsk in the Donbas region, its twin city of Lysychansk is now coming under heavier bombardment. Photo: AFP“The Russian army is massively shelling Lysychansk,” Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region, which includes both cities, wrote on Telegram. In Lysychansk, a Russian strike had left a gaping hole in a police station and damaged nearby apartment blocks, journalists in the city reported. Fifteen people were killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv on Tuesday, its governor said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 22, 2022 20:55 UTC
Microsoft stops selling emotion-reading technology
Microsoft stops selling emotion-reading technologyReuters, OAKLAND, CaliforniaMicrosoft Corp on Tuesday said that it would stop selling technology that guesses someone’s emotion based on a facial image and would no longer provide unfettered access to facial recognition technology. Since at least last year, Microsoft has been reviewing whether emotion recognition systems are rooted in science. Existing customers would have one year before losing access to artificial intelligence tools that purport to infer emotion, gender, age, smile, facial hair, hair and makeup. Google blocked 13 planned emotions from its tool for reading emotion and placed under review four existing ones, such as joy and sorrow. Microsoft also said customers now must obtain approval to use its facial recognition services, which can enable people to log into Web sites or open locked doors through a face scan.
Source:Taipei Times
June 22, 2022 20:55 UTC
Taipei ranked 10th in global quality of living survey
Taipei ranked 10th in global quality of living survey‘HIDDEN GEM’: The city earned plaudits for its low crime rate, world-class healthcare system, cheap cost of living and easy public transportationStaff writer, with CNATaipei has been named the 10th best city in the world for quality of living in an annual survey by the editors of Monocle, a UK-based global affairs and lifestyle magazine. Taipei’s 10th place finish was one place down from a year earlier. Photo: CNAThe survey ranked Copenhagen as the world’s best city, with Zurich, Lisbon, Helsinki and Stockholm rounding out the top five. Among Asian cities, only Tokyo finished above Taipei, placing sixth. The article lauded Taipei for its low crime rate and “world-class healthcare system,” as well as its convenient public transportation and cheap cost of living.
Source:Taipei Times
June 21, 2022 22:28 UTC
Pedaling ahead
US rejects China’s claims over StraitALARM GROWS: US officials are concerned that China’s claim that the Taiwan Strait is an internal waterway is a deliberate effort to muddy the legal status of Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration has decided to reject a vague new assertion by China that the Taiwan Strait is not “international waters” and is increasingly concerned the stance could result in more frequent challenges at sea for Taiwan, people familiar with the matter said. Chinese officials have made such remarks repeatedly in meetings with US counterparts over the past few months. In the past, while China regularly protested US military moves in the Taiwan Strait, the legal status of the waters was not a regular talking point in meetings with US officials. The timing of the assertion is causing alarm within the
Source:Taipei Times
June 21, 2022 17:29 UTC
Vedanta decides to sell troubled copper smelter
Vedanta decides to sell troubled copper smelterReuters, NEW DELHIIndia’s oil-to-metals conglomerate Vedanta Ltd yesterday offered to sell a copper smelter complex in southern Tamil Nadu state that was closed four years ago after police opened fire during protests, which culminated in 13 deaths. Local officials seal the entrance to a copper smelter controlled by London-listed Vedanta Ltd in Thoothukudi, India, on May 18, 2018. The company, controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal, said in March last year that it was looking for a state government partner to set up a new, 100 billion rupees (US$1.28 billion) copper smelter. The proposed 500,000 tonnes per annum copper smelter could employ as many as 10,000 people, Vedanta said, adding that it was looking for a 405 hectares site close to a port. Shares of Vedanta fell as much as 10 percent in early trading yesterday to 237.6 rupees, the lowest in more than a year.
Source:Taipei Times
June 21, 2022 02:57 UTC
High inflation locked in: Yellen
High inflation locked in: Yellen‘GLOBAL, NOT LOCAL’: Stubborn inflation is the result of issues such as supply disruptions from the war in Ukraine and China’s COVID-19 lockdowns, Yellen saidBloomberg“Unacceptably high” prices are likely to stick with consumers through the rest of the year and the US economy is likely to slow down, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said on Sunday. “We’ve had high inflation so far this year, and that locks in higher inflation for the rest of the year,” she said on American Broadcasting Co’s This Week. Photo: AFPUS inflation last month accelerated to 8.6 percent, a fresh 40-year high that signals price pressures are becoming entrenched in the economy. Yellen said a gasoline tax holiday is “worth considering” if it could help consumers weather inflation. Excess savings and consumer balance sheets would help mitigate the speed of economic contraction, but monetary and fiscal policy would be constrained by high inflation, they said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 21, 2022 01:23 UTC
Ministry mulls installing solar panels on army bases
Ministry mulls installing solar panels on army basesBy Wu Su-wei and Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter, with staff writerArmy bases are being surveyed for sites where companies could install solar panels, the Ministry of National Defense said, expressing its aim to comply with the government’s sustainable energy policies. The ministry said in a report to the Legislative Yuan that it seeks to improve the energy security of important facilities on army bases by promoting energy diversification and self-sufficiency. In peacetime, army bases use electricity provided by Taiwan Power, but they switch to generators and uninterruptible power systems during power outages, the ministry said. A solar array is pictured on the roof of a building in Tainan’s Sinying District in an undated photograph. The Regulations Governing Power Rationing During Power Shortage Periods (電源不足時期限制用電辦法) give troops priority for electricity during wartime, it said.
Source:Taipei Times
June 20, 2022 03:38 UTC
State-run banks hike rates
State-run banks hike ratesStaff writer, with CNASeveral major lenders are to raise interest rates for depositors today, after the central bank increased its benchmark rediscount rate from 1.375 percent to 1.5 percent on Thursday. After major lenders raise their time deposit rates by 12.5 basis points, depositors who own NT$1 million (US$33,647) in time deposit accounts are to receive an additional NT$3,750 in interest annually. The bank is also to raise its two-year time savings deposit floating rate by 0.125 percentage points to 1.25 percent, while its three-year time savings deposit floating rate is to rise 13 basis points, higher than the central bank’s hike, to 1.285 percent, it said. State-run Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行) is to increase its floating rates for one-year to three-year time savings deposits and the fixed rates for its one-year to three-year time savings deposits by 0.125 percentage points. While deposit rates are to rise in line with the central bank’s rate hikes, market observers said the banking sector would raise mortgage rates by more than 12.5 basis points soon to have a higher interest spread, which is expected to improve banks’ profitability.
Source:Taipei Times
June 19, 2022 22:30 UTC
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying wins Indonesia Open title
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying wins Indonesia Open titleStaff writer, with CNATaiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) yesterday clinched the women’s singles title at the Badminton World Federation’s Indonesia Open in Jakarta with a win against China’s Wang Zhiyi (王祉怡). The win gave Tai her third Indonesia Open title and her second of the season, after the Thailand Open last month. Tai Tzu-ying celebrates beating China’s Wang Zhiyi in their Indonesia Open women’s singles final in Jakarta yesterday. Taiwan`s Tai Tzu-ying poses during the victory ceremony after winning the women`s singles event at the Indonesia Open badminton tournament in Jakarta on June 19, 2022. The purse at the Super 1000 Indonesia Open totaled US$1.2 million.
Source:Taipei Times
June 19, 2022 22:30 UTC
Asian stocks follow Wall St lower on economy fears
Asian stocks follow Wall St lower on economy fearsAP, BEIJINGAsian stock markets on Friday followed Wall Street lower on fears that global economic activity would be depressed by interest rate hikes to cool inflation. In Taiwan, the TAIEX closed 1.25 percent lower at 15,641.26. However, turnover was up compared with recent sessions at NT$307.877 billion (US$10.36 billion), after staying between NT$190 billion and NT$230 billion for much of the month. For the week, the TAIEX lost 818 points, or 4.97 percent. It had closed lower for seven consecutive sessions.
Source:Taipei Times
June 18, 2022 19:01 UTC