Business and Finance

Ministry approves SME returns

TOTAL NOW 123: A vending machines maker, a metal treatment firm, a maker of routing tools and a maker of adjustable wrenches are some of the firms to invest

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 02, 2019
By: Natasha Li  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of Economic Affairs on Friday approved another six small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) joining a government program aimed at encouraging investment in Taiwan.

Vending machines manufacturer Gold Rain Enterprises Corp (金雨企業), which supplies companies including Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), Hey Song Corp (黑松) and US slot machine maker International Game Technology (IGT), plans to invest more than NT$300 million (US$9.55 million) by adding a smart production line at its existing plant in Changhua County and setting up a research and development center in Taichung.

Proxene Tools Co (伯鑫工具), which specializes in adjustable wrenches for industrial and professional use, plans to invest more than NT$800 million by establishing a new smart production plant in Taichung’s Shengang District (神岡) to meet market demand and improve production efficiency.    [FULL  STORY]

Macronix to fund AI innovation center at top Taiwan university

Macronix Innovation Center and School of Computing established at National Cheng Kung University

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/30
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Macronix CEO Miin Wu (center right) at opening of Macronix Innovation Center at NCKU, Aug. 28 (photo courtesy of NCKU)\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) –The founder and chairman of Taiwan’s Macronix International Co. (旺宏電子), Miin Wu (吳敏求), recently announced he would donate NT$420 million (US$13.3 million) to National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) to help establish the new Macronix Innovation Center and “School of Computing."

The university held a ceremony on Wednesday (Aug. 28) on its campus in Tainan to express gratitude for the generous donation and to herald the opening of Taiwan’s first such computing school at a major university. Wu is himself an alumnus of NCKU, having graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering in 1970 and from the department’s graduate program in 1973.

The university and tech company are teaming up to boost AI-related research and development at the Macronix Innovation Center while also working to streamline cooperation between the field of computer science and key technological industries in Taiwan. Based in Hsinchu, Macronix is a leading company in the manufacture of integrated memory devices, including hard drives and flash drives, with products specially designed and manufactured for use across a wide range of industries.

By partnering with NCKU, one of Taiwan’s top educational institutions, Macronix hopes to integrate smart technology into a number of different disciplines taught at the university to boost innovation. In line with the goals of the Ministry of Science and Education, both NCKU and Macronix are dedicated to promoting industrial innovation and encouraging entrepreneurship and collaboration among Taiwan's talented young engineers, developers, and scientists with support from the country’s top academic institutions and business leaders.    [FULL  STORY]

Solar energy firm’s liquidation plan approved by shareholders

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/30
By: Chang Chien-chung, Jeffery Wu and Frances Huang

CNA file photo

Taipei, Aug. 30 (CNA) Green Energy Technology Inc., a Taiwanese financially troubled multicrystalline solar wafer maker, said Friday that the company's liquidation plan has been approved by its shareholders.

Green Energy Technology, a subsidiary of conglomerate Tatung Co., held a special general meeting Friday to allow its shareholders to consider the liquidation plan and vote on it.

The solar energy supplier said that in a fast changing market that has pushed down product prices, its production costs have topped the selling prices, so the company continues to suffer losses and cannot produce cash flow for survival.

Therefore, Green Energy Technology decided to go through liquidation, and after securing approval from shareholders, it will start a liquidation process, while an exact liquidation timetable is pending a decision by the liquidators.    [FULL  STORY]

Lite-On approves Toshiba deal

APPROVAL REQUIRED: The company is to sell its SSD unit, including equipment, workers, intellectual property, technology and inventories, to Toshiba Memory

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 31, 2019
By: Natasha Li  /  Staff reporter

Electronic components supplier Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday said that its board of directors has approved the sale of its solid state drives (SSD) business to Toshiba Memory Holdings Corp for US$165 million.

Toshiba Memory, which is 40 percent owned by Toshiba Corp, is the world’s second-largest supplier of NAND flash memory chips.

SSD is a storage device used in consumer electronics, and enterprise and industrial equipment that is based on semiconductor NAND flash memory that Toshiba developed in 1987.

The transaction includes the operations and assets of Lite-On’s storage unit, with equipment, workers, intellectual property, technology, client and supplier relationships and inventories, Lite-On said.    [FULL  STORY]

Tariff Wars and Tech Made in the USA

Tech,pinions
Date: August 29, 2019
By: Phil Baker

I’m often asked why consumer tech products can’t be made in this country. In fact, with Trump’s tariff wars, more and more companies are being pressured to look for local manufacturing. I’ve always been skeptical, having worked on more than a hundred consumer tech products over my career, mostly manufactured in Asia, including Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China. Few companies in this country have the experience, knowledge, and resources to compete. And that’s before considering the cost and time to market advantages of Asia.

I recently had a chance to test this assumption, really hoping that I could prove myself wrong, thinking perhaps I’ve missed changes to US manufacturing over the years. Just maybe things have changed as new companies have emerged from crowdfunding campaigns looking for domestic manufacturers.

A friend asked for help to find a local (Southern California) manufacturer for his client that was building a couple of ruggedized consumer products that involved optics, displays and electronics. They needed to find a manufacturer within a few hours’ drive to take the product from a mature prototype into manufacturing and build a few thousand at a time. It was the beginning of a new line of products for the profitable company that represented about a half million dollars in business per year, likely doubling in year two.

I followed the process that I had used in the past, mostly just common sense: Profile the kind of company we wanted with regard to experience, size of business, skill set, and ideally developing similar products. I identified ten candidates by checking business directories, trade show exhibitions and websites. I then sent a personal email to each with an introduction, explaining the opportunity, what we were searching for, the type of product we wanted to build, and the size of our business. In return, I asked each company to tell us about themselves: how they manage a product introduction, describing any relevant experience, and how do they charge for their services.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Chunghwa Picture Tubes announces layoffs

Troubled flat panel maker to dismiss 2,100 employees

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Chunghwa Picture Tubes has decided to lay off 2,100 employees (Image from www.google.com.tw/maps).

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Just hours after denying media reports, the Tatung Group’s troubled Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (CPT, 中華映管) announced Thursday (August 29) evening that it would lay off all of its 2,100 employees and later re-employ them if necessary.

The flat panel maker, founded in 1971, has been going through months of restructuring with rumors of total collapse and massive layoffs surfacing again and again.

Earlier in the day, the company still said that no decision about its future had been reached after media reported that it was planning to keep only 50 of its more than 2,100 current employees.

After the stock market closed, CPT said it would dismiss all of its staff in a measure to take effect after 60 days, but it would take former workers back on if the need arose, the Central News Agency reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Starting salary of higher education graduates averages NT$34,278

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/29
By: Chang Hsiung-feng and intern Wang Jia-ling

Taipei, Aug. 29 (CNA) Full-time workers with tertiary education received NT$34,278 per month in starting salary on average in 2018, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Labor Wednesday.

Ph.D graduates received the highest average monthly pay of NT$67,495. Masters degree holders ranked second with NT$49,017. Junior college graduates received NT$31,331, which was NT$909 more than the average for those with bachelors degrees, the statistics showed.

Also in 2018, graduates working in the financial and insurance industry earned the highest wages, averaging NT$43,508 per month. Graduates working in the electricity and gas businesses made NT$39,947 while those in the manufacturing sector received NT$37,325.    [FULL  STORY]

Businesses back abolition of stamp tax

PUSHBACK: Local governments oppose eliminating the tax, which generates about NT$12 billion in annual revenue, 100 percent of which goes to local administrations

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 30, 2019
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Business leaders yesterday welcomed an Executive Yuan proposal to scrap the stamp tax, saying the

Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce chairman Lin Por-fong speaks at a news conference yesterday in Taipei.
Photo: Lee Ya-wen, Taipei Times

move to ditch an obsolete levy was long overdue and would help simplify the nation’s taxation system.

The Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會) urged local governments to support the Cabinet’s decision to abolish the tax, which generates about NT$12 billion (US$381.7 million) in annual tax revenue.

“It is an outdated duty the government has promised to address, but has failed to take action until now,” association chairman Lin Por-fong (林伯豐) told a news conference in Taipei.

The business group has pushed for the tax’s abolition for decades and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) gave a positive feedback during a meeting in May, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s TSMC rejects GlobalFoundries patent infringement allegations

TSMC confident accusations are baseless

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/27
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), on Tuesday (August 27) rejected allegations by rival GlobalFoundries that its processors had infringed on patents held by the United States company in the U.S. and Germany.

GlobalFoundries has filed patent lawsuits which might block imports into the U.S. and Germany of all of Apple’s iPhones and iPads but also products from about a dozen brands, including Asus, Mediatek and Lenovo, reports said.

GlobalFoundries produced a list of all its complaints and of the 16 patents allegedly involved, 13 filed in the U.S. and three in Germany.

TSMC described the allegations as baseless, and said it would continue to defend the technology developed by its own research and development efforts, the Central News Agency reported.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s economy remains sluggish but leading indicators improve

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/27
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Aug. 27 (CNA) The local economy remained sluggish with an index gauging the economic climate flashing another "yellow-blue" light in July, at a time when the global economy was slowing down amid escalating trade conflicts between the United States and China, the National Development Council (NDC) said Tuesday.

However, despite this the country's leading indicators, which predict economic performance over the next three to six months, moved higher for the seventh consecutive month in July, a positive sign for future development, the NDC said.

Data compiled by the NDC, the country's top economic planning agency, showed that the composite index of monitoring indicators for July remained flat from a month earlier at 21 points representing a yellow-blue light, a category that ranges from 17-22 points.

It is the seventh consecutive month the local economy has flashed a yellow-blue light, according to the data.    [FULL  STORY]