EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) on Monday reported that a net loss in the second quarter narrowed from the previous quarter, as solid demand for cargo services helped offset a decline in passenger volume amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The airline posted a net loss of NT$614 million (US$20.79 million), or losses per share of NT$0.13, compared with a net loss of NT$1.2 billion, or losses per share of NT$0.25, in the first quarter.
EVA reported earnings per share of NT$0.01 in the second quarter of last year.
As the pandemic continued to cripple the global airline industry, EVA’s consolidated sales fell 56 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier to NT$19.29 billion, with its revenue from passenger flights plunging 93.6 percent year-on-year to NT$1.52 billion, the company said in a statement.
However, the steep decline in passenger revenue was offset by a 137 percent annual jump in cargo services income to NT$14.34 billion in the second quarter, EVA said.
Analysts said that the airline benefited from robust demand for shipments of high-tech devices and personal protective equipment in the second quarter.
For the first six months of this year, EVA reported a net loss of NT$1.83 billion, or losses per share of NT$0.38.
Consolidated sales decreased 44 percent year-on-year, with revenue from passenger flights falling 59.6 percent from the previous year to NT$20.17 billion and revenue from cargo services climbing 70.7 percent to NT$20.72 billion.
EVA’s statement of a strong second-quarter increase in cargo revenue followed a similar report last week by China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), which reported net profit of NT$2.46 billion, or earnings per share of NT$0.45, for the second quarter, recovering from a net loss of NT$3.77 billion, or losses per share of NT$0.69, in the first quarter.
Shares of EVA and CAL fell 1.35 percent and 1.79 percent to NT$10.95 and NT$8.24 respectively on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
The declines were caused by investors locking in their gains from the previous session, when shares of EVA and CAL rose 3.74 percent and 4.61 percent respectively, dealers said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to