Business and Finance

Business monitor signals slowdown

INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS: There are encouraging signs, but they are not strong enough to lift the monitor to ‘green,’ which suggests a stable economy, an official said

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 28, 2019
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The nation’s business climate monitor last month again signaled a slowdown as private investments continued to gain momentum, but downside risks linked to a trade dispute between the US and China intensified, the National Development Council said yesterday.

The monitor signaled yellow-blue for the seventh consecutive month with a score of 21, unchanged from June, indicating that the economy remains soft, despite the advent of the high season for technology products, the council said.

“There are encouraging signs, but they are not strong enough to lift the monitor to ‘green,’ which suggests a stable economy,” council research director Wu Ming-huei (吳明蕙) told a media briefing.

The council uses a five-color system to describe the state of the domestic economy, with “green” indicating steady growth, “red” suggesting overheating and “blue” signaling a recession. Dual colors indicate a transition.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s political parties urged to address soaring housing prices

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/26
By:  Central News Agency

(CNA photo)

A group of housing rights activists on Monday called on all political parties to put forth concrete policies for dealing with the issue of high housing prices in Taiwan.

At a press conference to mark the 30th anniversary of a historic protest in Taipei against unaffordable housing, Peng Yang-kai (彭揚凱), a spokesperson for the Housing Movement, said that three decades later housing prices have continued to rise.

In 1989, when members of the so-called Snails Without Shells Movement staged a huge sleep-out on Zhongxiao East Road, the housing price-to-income ratio in Taipei was 8.58 to 1, Peng said.

That ratio represented the number of years the average person needed to save, without spending on anything else, to buy a house of median value, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

PCB supplier to lay off over 400 workers

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/26
By: Wu Jui-chi, Jiang Min-yan and Frances Huang

Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) Dynamic Electronics Co., a Taiwan-based printed circuit board (PCB) maker, said Monday it will lay off the vast majority of its employees at its Taoyuan manufacturing facility after years of running losses in Taiwan.

The Labor Department in Taoyuan, where the company is headquartered, confirmed that the bureau has received a report from Dynamic on the planned layoff of more than 400 Taiwanese workers and said they are scheduled to take effect on Oct. 15.

On Aug. 19, the agency sent representatives to visit the PCB supplier for a better understanding of the move.

In addition, the management and the affected employees met on Aug. 16 for a discussion about the layoffs, and the agency said it will arrange a meeting for the affected Dynamic employees in September to brief them on the compensation they should receive for being laid off.
[FULL  STORY]

Mixed signals on Micron expansion

CAPACITY BOOST? While a science park official said the US company has submitted a plan to build fab A5, a company official said that no final decision has been made

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 27, 2019
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Memorychip maker Micron Technology Inc has submitted a new plan for expansion in Taichung to meet future DRAM demand for next-generation 5G technology, a Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) Bureau official said yesterday.

“We are aware of Micron’s new investment plan to build [fab] A5,” the official told the Taipei Times by telephone. “The company has submitted its capacity expansion project to the bureau.”

The US company plans to build a new DRAM fab on the site it acquired from bankrupt touch sensor maker Cando Corp (達鴻) in 2017, the official said, but declined to disclose details about the plan.

The official’s comments came in response to questions about a report by the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, which said Micron would invest a total of NT$400 billion (US$12.72 million) on new two fabs — A3 and A5.    [FULL  STORY]

Cafe chain to stage massive layoffs

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/23
By: Chang Jung-hsiang, Chang Hsiung-feng, Jiang Ming-yan and 
Frances Huang

Image from Crown & Fancy’s Facebook page

Taipei, Aug. 23 (CNA) Crown & Fancy, a Tainan-headquartered coffee shop chain, is planning to lay off most of its employees after the company suffered heavy losses amid escalating competition in the local coffee market, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) said Friday.

The MOL said Crown & Fancy will lay off 224 of its 283 employees around Taiwan, scheduled to take effect Oct. 20.

According to the MOL, the massive layoffs include 55 from its Tainan stores, 22 from its Taipei outlets, 32 from its New Taipei stores, 22 from its Taichung outlets and 93 from its Kaohsiung operations.

Wang Hou-wei (王厚偉), director of the MOL's Department of Employment Relations, told reporters that Crown & Fancy filed a report to the Labor Affairs Bureau of the Tainan City government Aug. 19 regarding the layoffs.    [FULL  STORY]

Industrial production expands 3.03%

TECH-DRIVEN: The annual increase last month was led by record sales of electronics and optical components, bolstered by demand from the US and 5G development

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 24, 2019
By: Kwan Shin-han  /  Staff reporter

Bolstered by robust sales of electronics, optical products and integrated circuits, industrial production increased 3.03 percent annually last month, ahead of the high season for technology products, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

Electronics and optical components reported record sales last month, surging 34.82 percent from a year earlier, the ministry said, adding that sales expanded for a 10th consecutive month.

“Industrial production was better than expected, thanks to demand for electronics from the US and 5G development, which boosted shipments of servers, switches, routers and wireless communication devices,” Department of Statistics Director-General Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) told a news conference.

Shipments of camera lenses also swelled, as new-generation smartphones are about to enter the market, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan company shows off violin played via machine learning

Taiwan CHELIC Corp. showed off device at the Taipei Industrial Automation Exhibition

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/08/22
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Machine designed by Taiwan CHELIC Corp. to play violin (By Central News Agency)\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taipei Industrial Automation Exhibition is being held at Taipei’s Nangang Exhibition Center this week.

At the event’s opening on Aug. 21, one display that caught visitors’ attention was a pneumatic precision instrument designed and programed to play the violin.The remarkable machine is exhibited by Taiwan CHELIC Corp. (台灣氣立) and displays how far machine learning and research in artificial intelligence has progress in recent years.

The Taiwan CHELIC Corp. has been devoting lots of investment into researching and developing machine components that will be integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT).For example, the automated robotic violin player is being used to display how communications technology and electric circuits can be integrated with pneumatically powered machines to accomplish very specific physical tasks.

Taiwan CHELIC Corp. specializes in air-pressure powered devices, along with a wide array of valve and cylinder designs used in machine manufacturing. The company hopes to be a major player in the IoT industrial revolution in areas of automation, medical equipment, factory maintenance, and teaching materials, reports the Central News Agency.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan shares close up 0.04%

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/22
By: Y.F. Low

Taipei, Aug. 22 (CNA) Taiwan shares closed up 3.98 points, or 0.04 percent, at 10,529.78 Thursday on turnover of NT$121.32 billion (US$3.48 billion).     [SOURCE]

Unemployment rate increases 3.82%

MANY FACTORS: Corporate downsizing and closures resulted in 1,000 people losing their jobs last month, but the working population also rose 0.2 percent month-on-month

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 23, 2019
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The unemployment rate last month rose to 3.82 percent, an increase of 0.09 percentage points from June, as corporate downsizing affected job opportunities for new graduates, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday.

The number is the highest in 11 months and 0.01 percentage points higher than a year earlier, suggesting that the job market is stable, despite a seasonal pickup and an economic slowdown, Census Department Deputy Director Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨) said.

“The local job market, while not spared from the impact of the economic slowdown, was somewhat unscathed,” Pan said, adding that unemployment after seasonal adjustments stood at 3.72 percent, down 0.02 percentage points from a month earlier.

For the past five years, the jobless rate has climbed 0.23 to 0.28 percentage points from June to August, owing to college graduates entering the market, Pan said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan-India industrial cooperation elevated to an even higher level

Dozens of MOUs have been signed over the past few months set to strengthen bilateral industrial exchanges

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/12/20
By: Jose Kalathil, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

Silicon Valley of India (By Wikimedia Commons)

NEW DELHI (Taiwan News) – The Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India (TECC) and the India-Taipei Association (ITA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Promotion of Industry Collaboration, as part of efforts to elevate Taiwan-India industrial cooperation to an even higher level.

The MOU was signed by TECC Representative Ambassador Chung-Kwang Tien and ITA Director Sridharan Madhusudhanan in New Delhi in the presence of Deputy Director General of Bureau of Foreign Trade of Taiwan, Dr. Guann-Jyh Lee and Joint Secretary of Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India, Vandana Kumar.

Under the MOU, Taiwan and India will expand the scope of cooperation in not only trade and investment but also in industrial collaboration. The MOU involves cooperation in research and development (R&D), design and engineering, product manufacturing and after sales services.

With that, Taiwan and India will adopt various models for cooperation in order to create synergies and industrial value chains, as well as develop products/services and enhance their added value.
[FULL  STORY]