Rising orders boost Nanya revenue
By Lisa Wang / Staff ReporterDRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said that revenue last month rose to the highest in three months on the back of rising chip prices and shipments. For the remainder of this year, revenue would grow quarter by quarter as chip demand is expected to outpace supply, it said. However, the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar versus the US dollar eroded some revenue growth last month, it said. Information obtained by Nanya Technology also showed that its raw material suppliers, equipment suppliers and subcontractors would operate normally, the statement said. To keep up with recovering demand, Nanya Technology did not halt production during the Lunar New Year holiday and said that there are no effects to its global sales.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Singapore Airshow to go ahead as planned next week
Reuters, SINGAPOREThe Singapore Airshow, Asia’s biggest aerospace gathering, is to go ahead as planned next week, despite a viral outbreak in China prompting some firms to pull out, but a key meeting of aviation officials has been canceled, organizers said yesterday. The trade portion of the airshow, held every two years, is set to begin on Tuesday next week under the shadow of the outbreak that has prompted measures by several nations, including Singapore, to contain the spread of infections. The WHO last week declared the virus, which has spread to almost two dozen countries, a global emergency. Citing industry sources, Reuters reported earlier that the summit, which was to involve 300 aviation executives, comprising government officials, civil aviation authorities and airline executives, had been canceled. International Air Transport Association director-general Alexandre de Juniac would no longer travel to Singapore, said a spokesman representing the airline body.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: First airplane brings 247 home from Wuhan; one more virus case confirmed
Later last night, Chen said one of the three tested positive for the virus, raising the total number of cases confirmed in Taiwan to 11. During the Lunar New Year holiday, the Mainland Affairs Council asked Beijing to allow Taiwan to evacuate Taiwanese in Wuhan, Department of Legal Affairs head Tsai Ji-ru (蔡志儒) said. “There were many innocent and cute children among the evacuees, so I felt a little emotional when thinking about how anxious they might have felt while they were stranded in Wuhan,” Chen said. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday posted on Facebook that the government recognizes China for its efforts in getting Taiwanese back to Taiwan. The government is grateful to all the departments and personnel on both sides of the Taiwan Strait who helped accomplish the evacuation, Tsai said.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Service area visitors fall on route, weather, virus
61), bad weather and intensive news coverage about a coronavirus outbreak in China contributed to a decrease in the number of visitors to freeway service areas during this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, the Freeway Bureau said yesterday. Despite the decline in the number of visitors and revenue, Liu said that several freeway service areas outperformed their peers during the holiday. Taichung’s Cingshuei Service Area opened a new Japanese food court on the third floor, which generated NT$4.82 million during the holiday, or 11.8 percent of the service area’s revenue over the holiday, he added. The revenue generated at the 14 service areas last year totaled NT$4.13 billion, up 1.6 percent from 2018, bureau data showed. The top three freeway service areas by revenue growth were the Shiding Service Area in New Taipei City (9.55 percent), the Siluo Service Area in Yunlin County (5.68 percent) and the Sinying Service Area in Tainan (4.61 percent), the data showed.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Global economy feeling the strain of China’s coronavirus outbreak
By Cecile Daurat / BloombergAn interconnected global economy is feeling the strain of China’s 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak — and the potential US$160 billion hit in lost growth that could be on the way. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is rallying support for an emergency OPEC meeting on concern demand for oil would falter. Since China’s last global health crisis, the SARS outbreak of 2002 and 2003, its share of global economic output has quadrupled to about 17 percent. China so far has absorbed most of the economic shock from the coronavirus outbreak. China’s essential role in the global supply chain means business owners and executives around the world are being forced to contemplate what would happen in a prolonged crisis.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Hyundai suspends local production
The global auto industry operates on tight supply lines. The outbreak has disrupted the supply of parts for Hyundai, the company said. “Hyundai Motor has decided to suspend its production lines from operating at all of its plants in [South] Korea,” the automaker said in a statement. The outbreak has disrupted the procurement of auto parts called wiring harnesses, which are mostly produced at Hyundai’s assembly lines in China. Yesterday’s move came after Hyundai canceled overtime factory hours at the weekend to produce its flagship Palisade sport utility vehicle.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Sanders claims lead as Iowa vote turns into a fiasco
AFP, DES MOINES, IowaIowa’s vote launching this year’s US presidential contest on Monday degenerated into a fiasco marred by major delays, with US Senator Bernie Sanders claiming a slim lead among the Democratic hopefuls based on partial unofficial results. Figures released by Sanders’ campaign, five hours after the caucuses opened across the state of Iowa, showed former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg in second, a strong showing for a candidate who was a national unknown just one year ago. “Iowa, you have shocked the nation,” the 38-year-old gay military reservist told cheering supporters in what sounded very much like a victory speech. Iowa is a closely watched test in the months-long process to determine who is to face the Republican president in the November presidential election. Iowa Democratic Party communications director Mandy McClure said in a statement read on US networks that further checks were ordered after “inconsistencies” were found in the reporting of three sets of results.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: Soap and sanitizer outweigh wearing mask: doctor
By Hua Mang-Ching and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerHand washing is frequently more important in preventing diseases than wearing a surgical mask, an infectious disease specialist said yesterday. Both “wet wash” and “dry wash” techniques can effectively prevent people from catching the virus, Miu said. However, after sterilization, masks need to be stored in a clean and dry environment for three days before being reused, he said. Studies have shown that secondhand masks have less effective filtration, but are still usable, he said. However, the masks worn by the more than 200 Taiwanese who returned to Taiwan yesterday from Wuhan, China, on an evacuated flight would be treated as medical waste to avoid possibly spreading the virus, the EPA said.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: First person dies from coronavirus in Hong Kong
The city is only 175km southwest of Shanghai, which has had more than 200 cases, including one death, so far. The death of the 39-year-old man in Hong Kong came as the territory closed all but two land crossings with the Chinese mainland to slow the spread of the virus. He was a Hong Kong resident who had traveled last month to Wuhan, returning home on Jan. 23 via a high-speed rail link. News of the fatality broke as a strike by Hong Kong medical workers protesting against the government’s response to the crisis entered its second day, with the Hong Kong Hospital Authority saying that about 4,400 staff were absent — including about 360 doctors and 2,500 nurses. Hong Kong has been particularly on edge over the virus as it has revived memories of the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003, which killed nearly 300 people in the territory and 349 people in China.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: MOFA slams Beijing’s ‘misleading’ lies
By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday accused the Chinese government of lying and misleading other nations into blocking Taiwanese flights or tourists, after Italy, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Mongolia imposed bans amid 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) fears. Li told the meeting that “the so-called crevice to global disease prevention resulting from Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO does not exist at all. Ou rejected Li’s claims, saying that the Taiwanese sent to Wuhan were only able to gather limited information. The ministry protests the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ reiteration of the “one China” principle as a prerequisite for Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO, she said. Local media yesterday reported that 228 Taiwanese were stuck in Myanmar after Myanmar Airways International suspended flights between Mandalay and Taipei.
Source:Taipei Times
February 04, 2020 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: Some Australian universities delaying semester start
The GuardianSome Australian universities are delaying their semester return while others are offering special consideration for students unable to get back to Australia amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis. There has not been a coordinated response from universities, and their policies will largely depend on when each university is to begin the semester. Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson on Sunday said that the focus was on the health and safety of people at university, and on minimizing the disruption to their studies. The University of Sydney announced on Saturday evening it would allow students to enroll up to two weeks after the start of semester (by March 9), or let students defer their studies or have fees refunded. The University of Tasmania has said it would offer online courses to the estimated 1,300 students affected by the travel ban.
Source:Taipei Times
February 03, 2020 16:07 UTC
German farmers apprehensive as swine fever nears
Reuters, TAUCHE, GermanyThe German state of Brandenburg has erected about 120km of electric fencing to prevent wild boars infected with African swine fever from straying across the border from Poland and infecting its pig herd. “It looks rather inevitable that swine fever will come,” said Daniels, whose farm near Tauche, close to the Polish border, has 11,000 pigs. African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease that kills almost all the pigs it infects, but does not harm humans. “It is difficult to estimate how high the damage will be for German pig farmers,” DBV secretary-general Bernhard Kruesken said. “But we estimate at least a triple-digit million euro sum.”Any export ban on German pork would also have knock-on effects for other European countries.
Source:Taipei Times
February 03, 2020 16:07 UTC
Reasons to recall Han abound; one is primary
By Twu Shiing-jer 涂醒哲In the wake of last month’s presidential election, the campaign to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) has picked up speed. The outcome of a recall procedure is decided by city residents in a vote. To date, no campaign to recall a county commissioner or a mayor of a city or special municipality has been successful. If Kaohsiung residents vote to recall Han, they will create a political milestone that is certain to become the envy of Hong Kong residents and Chinese citizens alike. Twu Shiing-jer is a former Chiayi City mayor.
Source:Taipei Times
February 03, 2020 16:07 UTC
British PM talks tough on post-Brexit EU trade
In a speech to business leaders and international diplomats in London, Johnson planned to say: “We want a free-trade agreement,” but not at any cost. “The choice is emphatically not ‘deal or no-deal,’” he was to say, according to extracts released by his office. In their divorce agreement, Britain and the EU agreed to strike an “ambitious, broad, deep and flexible partnership,” including a free-trade deal and agreements for security and other areas. The bloc insists there can be no trade deal unless Britain agrees to a “level playing field” and does not undercut EU regulations, especially in areas of environmental protections, workers’ rights, and health and safety standards. The EU-Canada deal that the British government cites as a model took seven years to negotiate.
Source:Taipei Times
February 03, 2020 16:07 UTC
EDITORIAL: Mask kerfuffle reveals demons
She used a barrage of derogatory epithets to describe Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) after the government banned exports of surgical masks for a month amid fears of a local 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. The controversy raged on when actress Big S (大S, also known as Barbie Hsu, 徐熙媛) and her younger sister, TV show host Little S (小S, also known as Dee Hsu, 徐熙娣), joined the fray. As such, it was perfectly understandable that Dee Hsu’s swipe at the government and Fan’s apology failed to strike a chord. Ultimately, their hypocrisy proved too much for most Taiwanese. If any other country were in such proximity to China and ran such a high risk from the virus, its government would also ensure that its people had prioritized access to masks.
Source:Taipei Times
February 03, 2020 16:07 UTC