AIRLINES
CAL sells, leases five jets
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday said it sold five Airbus SE A330-300 jets to Irish leasing company Altitude Aircraft Cal I Ltd for between US$30 million and US$33 million each and immediately leased them back to maintain its capacity. CAL reported a loss of about NT$90 million (US$2.9 million) from the transaction, as the disposal gain of US$156 million was less than the five jets’ asset value of NT$4.942 billion. CAL said the number of its passenger airplanes remains at 70.
SOLAR INDUSTRY
TSE raises NT$455 million
TSE Corp (元晶), which makes solar modules and helps clients install solar panels, has raised NT$455 million via a rights issue, it said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. The company plans to use the proceeds to repay bank loans. Shareholders subscribed to the newly issued 65 million common shares at NT$7 per share, the filing said. The price represented a 12.5 percent discount to the stock’s closing price of NT$8 in Taipei trading yesterday.
TECHNOLOGY
Asustek, institute sign deal
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to collaborate on various digital applications, such as cloud-based storage, an artificial intelligence (AI) development platform and Internet of Things technologies. Asustek last year worked with the National Applied Research Laboratories in the development of the supercomputer Taiwania. The company aims to expand the supercomputer’s AI and big data capabilities by the end of this year.
MACROECONOMICS
Wages post stable growth
The average regular wage rose 2.42 percent from a year earlier to NT$41,927 in July after a 2.33 percent year-on-year increase in June, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics reported on Wednesday. The average earned income, which includes regular salary plus bonuses, overtime pay and other irregular income, also rose 2.53 percent to NT$53,017, the agency said. In the first seven months of the year, the average regular wage climbed 2.32 percent to NT$41,702, while the average earned income grew 1.81 percent to NT$56,360, it said.
ENERGY
Orsted to sell green bonds
Danish energy developer Orsted A/S on Wednesday said that it is planning to issue New Taiwan dollar-denominated green bonds on the local market by the end of the year. The company said in a statement that it is in talks with a consortium — led by BNP Paribas SA and Deutsche Bank AG — that includes CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行) and Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) to underwrite the sale. It did not disclose the financial terms for the planned issue. Funds raised from the bond sale would be injected into Taiwan’s offshore wind power industry, Orsted said.
AUTOMOTIVE
Iron Force sales rise 9.14%
Iron Force Industrial Co (劍麟), which supplies seat belts, airbag inflators and safety parts, on Tuesday reported that cumulative revenue in the first eight months of the year increased 9.14 percent to NT$3.06 billion due to rising shipments of automotive safety system parts, led by precision tubes for pretensioner seat belts. The company said in a news release that order visibility and factory utilization rates have improved this year, as major vehicle brands increase adoption of safety parts.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$10.26 billion to finance the construction of its second fab in Kumamoto, Japan, and a second fab in Arizona, using advanced process technologies. The Department of Investment Review approved TSMC’s investment applications on the basis that Taiwan remains a major technology and manufacturing hub for the chipmaker, which makes its most advanced chips at home, the company operates its research-and-development center here and the majority of its capacity remains in Taiwan. The latest capital injections — US$5.26 billion for its Japanese venture Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing
Packed into a small room, a drone, bipedal robot, supermarket checkout and other devices showcase a vision of China’s software future — one where an operating system developed by national champion Huawei (華為) has replaced Windows and Android. The collection is at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Center in the southern city of Shenzhen, a local government-owned entity that encourages authorities, companies and hardware makers to develop software using OpenHarmony (鴻蒙), an open-source version of the operating system Huawei launched five years ago after US sanctions cut off support for Google’s Android. While Huawei’s recent strong-selling smartphone launches have been closely watched for
The waves of the Aegean Sea lap gently at the tables and chairs of two beach restaurants on Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula. It is an idyllic scene, but one that is totally illegal. Like many others in Greece, the two establishments on Pefkochori Beach do not have a license to set up shop so close to the water. After a wave of protests last summer by locals about bars and restaurants illegally covering beaches with sunbeds and tables, the Greek state is taking action. It is cracking down on rogue tourist practices with surveillance drones, satellite imagery and a special app
AI BOOM: With many stocks trading at historically high levels, the TAIEX is expected to drop about 600 points in the third quarter as investors seek to pocket their profits Taiwan’s main board could experience a technical pullback after the TAIEX soared more than 28 percent in the first half of this year following a strong showing by artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks, analysts said on Saturday, predicting that the index would make a comeback in the fourth quarter. On Friday, the last trading session of this month, the TAIEX rose 126.27 points, or 0.55 percent, to 23,032.25, pushing up the main board by 5,101.44 points, or 28.4 percent, in the first six months of the year. Of the major indices in the world, the TAIEX only trailed the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index