Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/06
By: Wang Shu-fen and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) Russian airlines S7 Airlines and Royal Flight will launch regular flights to Taiwan May 24 and 25, respectively, following a Taiwanese tourism campaign started last year to attract tourists from the country, the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) announced Monday.

S7 Airlines will operate one round-trip flight every Friday between Vladivostok and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport using A320 aircraft, while Royal Flight will fly every Saturday between Moscow and Taoyuan, a route it previously used for charter flights between 2016 and 2017 using Boeing 767-300 jets.

The Vladivostok-Taoyuan flight takes roughly four hours, and the Moscow-Taoyuan flight takes 10.5 hours, according to the CAA.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced last September that Russian nationals will be given visa-free entry for visits of up to 14 days in Taiwan, with immediate effect through July 31, 2019 on a trial basis as part of government efforts to build closer links with other countries.    [FULL  STORY]

INVESTOR PESSIMISM: With the US and China unlikely to reach a comprehensive solution before Friday, market sentiment is likely to remain turbulent, an analyst said

Taipei Times
Date: May 07, 2019
By: Kao Shih-ching  /  Staff reporter

The TAIEX yesterday tumbled 1.8 percent to 10,897.12 points, joining a sell-off across

regional stock markets after US President Donald Trump threatened to increase tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods on Friday.

The weighted stock index ended 199.18 points lower, its largest one-day loss this year, on turnover of NT$137.863 billion (US$4.46 billion), Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.

Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$13.96 billion of local shares, and securities investment companies sold a net NT$559 million, TWSE data showed.

While the setback in Taipei was relatively smaller compared with other major markets in Asia, with Shanghai dropping 5.58 percent and Hong Kong falling 2.93 percent, volatility is expected to continue, analysts said.    [FULL  STORY]

Spring Scream 2019 described as ‘disastrous’ despite special performance by Kaohsiung Mayor Han on Saturday

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/05
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The 2019 Spring Scream (春吶) festival in southern Taiwan appears to have been a resounding flop this year, despite a guest appearance by the sensational Kaohsiung Mayor, Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).

The annual beach party, under new management this year, began on Friday, May 3, but crowd turnout was underwhelming the first two days of the three day event.

Media reports indicate that on the first day, there were less than 50 people enjoying live performances at the festival, which featured four different stages and almost 20 live acts on Friday.

Food and item vendors at the festival were also disheartened by the lackluster turnout, with one vendor who rented a space at the festival calling the turnout “disastrous,” reports Liberty Times.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/04
By:  Central News Agency

An additional seven Taiwanese firms have pledged to invest more than NT$34 billion in Taiwan at a time when the government is urging companies operating overseas to relocate some of their investments back to the island, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

The seven firms’ NT$34.1 billion investment plans, which are expected to create 2,200 new jobs, have pushed up the total amount of investment pledged back to Taiwan to NT$239.8 billion, and total number of companies to 47 so far this year, the MOEA said.

It said the 47 firms are expected to add more than 23,000 new jobs in the local market, and that the investments will speed up the pace for Taiwan to build a more comprehensive industrial cluster and strengthen its supply chain.

The ministry launched incentives in January to encourage Taiwanese companies that have shifted their operations overseas in recent decades, especially to China, to return to the country to invest at a time of trade frictions between Washington and Beijing.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/05 
By: Liao Yu-yang and Emerson Lim

Taipei, May 5 (CNA) In order to recoup some of the losses incurred over the past few

weeks, state-run oil refiner CPC Corp., Taiwan will raise gasoline prices this week for the eighth week in a row, for an accumulated increase of NT$2.30 per liter over the same period.

Effective midnight Sunday, the price of CPC gasoline products will increase by NT$0.20 per liter, while diesel will fall by NT$0.50 per liter, the company announced.

With the adjustments, retail prices at CPC gas stations will be NT$28.80 (US$0.92) per liter for 92 octane unleaded, NT$30.30 per liter for 95 octane unleaded, NT$32.30 per liter for 98 octane unleaded, and NT$26.80 per liter for super diesel.

International markets have seen price movements in the wake of U.S. efforts to step up its embargo against Iranian crude exports, and Washington’s call on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase production, resulting in a drop in international prices, the CPC explained.    [FULL  STORY]

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
Because Taiwan already had enough to worry about with an assertive China and the trade war between Beijing and Washington.

The Daily Dose 
Date: May 03, 2019 
By: Edward White

Growth in Taiwan has slowed to its worst level in almost three years, in the latest sign of fallout from a deepening slowdown plaguing the electronics sector, amid the U.S.-China trade war.

Gross domestic product growth, year over year, was 1.72 percent in the first quarter, according to a preliminary reading released last Tuesday, down from 3.15 percent in the first three months of 2018 and the slowest since the second quarter of 2016. Taiwan’s exports, which account for nearly three-quarters of GDP, have this year been hit by a sharp fall in demand for electronic components such as computer chips amid weaker device sales and slower global economic growth. Sentiment has been further dented by the trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies.

WE ARE CURRENTLY … PROVIDING MORE INCENTIVES FOR THE TAIWANESE FIRMS TO COME BACK.

SHEN JONG-CHIN, TAIWAN’S ECONOMICS MINISTER
Shen Jong-chin, Taiwan’s economics minister, says the government in Taipei was hoping for a buffer from a wave of Taiwan-owned businesses with operations in China shifting production capacity back to the island to avoid higher potential tariffs being imposed by Washington on Chinese exports.

“We are currently taking advantage of this trend … providing more incentives for the Taiwanese firms to come back,” Shen says.

Forty such companies, including electronics groups Quanta Computer, Sercomm and Wistron, are expanding production in Taiwan, creating more than 21,000 jobs with investments totaling $6.7 billion, according to a government document accessed by this reporter.    [FULL  STORY]

Supermicro to shift production from China to US$300 million plant in Taiwan to rebuild its brand reputation

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/03
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In order to rebuild its damaged reputation after news broke late last year that spy chips had been allegedly planted in its motherboards, Supermicro is planning on shifting production of its motherboards from China to a factory in northern Taiwan.

In October, Bloomberg reported that tiny rice-sized chips had been implanted on Supermicro server motherboards enabling the Chinese government to spy on servers operated by Apple, Amazon Web Services, and nearly 30 other companies. The chips were allegedly designed to enable a People’s Liberation Army unit specializing in hardware attacks to steal data from U.S. companies without being detected.

Although Supermicro, Apple, Amazon, and the Chinese government have denied that such devices have been planted in the motherboards, the damage to its reputation was significant. The motherboard maker has since had difficulty winning orders from US customers and those with ties to the US government, reported Techspot.

To allay customers’ concerns about security, Supermicro has started to both ask its partners relocate production to other countries and Supermicro is handling more of its own production outside of China, including a new factory in Taiwan. Previously, Supermicro outsourced most of the production to suppliers in China, while it mainly only handled assembly.    [FULL  STORY]

COMPANY FORECAST: In the worst-case scenario, revenue could increase 42 percent annually, reaching NT$24.93 billion this quarter, which is traditionally the slow season

Taipei Times
Date: May 04, 2019
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), which counts Apple Inc as its top client, yesterday said resilient

demand for large tablets helped it eke out a profit last quarter and that growth momentum would continue to underpin revenue this quarter.

Revenue is expected to slide less this quarter — the traditional slow season — at between 15 and 20 percent from NT$31.16 million (US$1.01 million) last quarter, TPK chief strategic officer Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) told a teleconference.

Based on the forecast, revenue in the worst-case scenario could reach NT$24.93 billion this quarter, representing growth of 42 percent from NT$17.79 billion a year earlier.

“The second quarter is an awkward period, as [customers are] adjusting inventories, while new products will only hit the market probably after the third quarter,” Liu said    [FULL  STORY]