Officials from both countries say there is vast potential for future cooperation

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/06
By: Ryan Drillsma, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan news) — Manufacturing Indonesia 2018 began yesterday, where the smart mechanical solutions promoted by a multitude of Taiwanese manufacturers allured local industry and media attention.

CNA reports that Taiwan External Trade Development Council in association with the Corporate Synergy Development Center hosted a VR (Virtual Reality) press conference at Manufacturing Indonesia on Dec. 5, with the theme “Taiwanese smart manufacturing for a better manufacturing future in Indonesia.”

The conference was commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Foreign Trade. Indonesian industry leaders were able to experience Taiwan’s smart mechanical solutions on-site via a “smart mechanics VR experience zone.”

Taiwan representative in Indonesia Peter Lan (藍夏禮) said smart mechanics is one of Taiwan’s most important industries, and there is vast potential for cooperation between the two countries on smart mechanical developments. Lan added that the Indonesian government has continuously promoted the development of the country’s manufacturing industries over recent years.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/06
By: Jiang Ming-yan and Evelyn Kao 

Taipei, Dec. 6 (CNA) Taiwanese smartphone brand HTC Corp. saw an increase in consolidated revenue in November for the second consecutive month, due mainly to the start of the peak holiday shopping season in Europe and the United States, the company said in a report issued Thursday.

HTC’s consolidated revenue in November was NT$1.47 billion (US$47.62 million), a monthly increase of 12.47 percent but a year-on-year decrease of 73.98 percent, according to the report.

In the first 11 months of the year, HTC’s consolidated revenue was NT$22.39 billion, a decline of 61.47 percent from the same period last year, the report showed.

Market analysts attributed HTC’s revenue growth in November to the launch of its mid-tier HTC U12 Life smartphone and its Vive Focus virtual reality (VR) headset in markets across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia.    [FULL  STORY]

RESILIENT DEMAND: Prices for more mature 8-inch components rose earlier this year and the firm said it expected supply to remain tight even if the global economy slows

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 07, 2018
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter, in HSINCHU

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract

chipmaker and sole chip supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday said that it is building a new 8-inch fab to meet robust demand for mature technologies, marking its first investment on a less advanced fab in 15 years.

Supply of mature and specialty technologies, especially from 8-inch fabs, has been constrained industrywide over the past year as demand rises for power management ICs, fingerprint identification chips, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors and a wide range of other applications.

Tight supply caused a rare price hike for 8-inch wafers earlier this year.

Beyond investment on scaling down chip sizes, “we also spend on specialty technologies,” TSMC vice chairman and chief executive officer C. C. Wei (魏哲家) said in his opening speech at the company’s annual supply chain management forum in Hsinchu. “Most recently, we are building a new 8-inch fab in Tainan because demand is so strong.”
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/05
By: Pan Tzi-yu and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Dec. 5 (CNA) Taiwan’s consumer prices rose 0.31 percent in November from a

year earlier, the smallest increase in 13 months, government statistics showed Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes fruit, vegetables and energy, rose 0.67 percent year-on-year, the smallest increase in 21 months, according to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).

The low year-on-year CPI growth for November was not because of low consumption, but rather was due to a drop in vegetable prices, a moderate increase in fuel prices and the diminishing effects of a tobacco tax hike in June 2016, according to leading DGBAS specialist Hsu Chien-chung (徐健中).

He said stable weather conditions in recent weeks led to a decline in vegetable prices. In November, vegetable prices fell nearly 20 percent from the previous month and 22.64 percent from a year earlier, the steepest year-on-year decline in 13 months. The drop in vegetable prices contributed to a 0.46 percentage point drop of the CPI in November, Hsu said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/04
By: Liang Pei-chi and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) Taiwan’s Chiu Yin-hsuan (邱映瑄) remains the world’s best female

roller skater in the category of classic freestyle slalom since she first climbed to the top of the world rankings compiled by the World Slalom Skaters Association (WSSA) in September.

The 18-year-old Chiu got her first gold medal in the 18th Asian Roller Skating Championship in South Korea in September. The victory pushed her world ranking to the top. She remained at the top of the WSSA World Ranking which was last updated in November.

The latest world ranking update shows that Chiu, a senior high school student in Taipei, is still the world’s best roller skater in women’s classic freestyle slalom.
[FULL  STORY]

Amazon Global Selling kicks off strategic plan to maximize potential of Taiwanese firms

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/04
By: Scott Morgan, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Amazon Global Selling held its first seller summit in Taiwan today, and launched three priorities to help Taiwanese brands sell to the world.

The three priorities, which are part of Amazon’s 2019 strategic plan for Taiwan, hope to facilitate sales through online export channels, achieve continuous business growth, and create international brands.

Lin Hui-chun (林惠君) general manager of Amazon Global Selling Taiwan, said that over the past year, Amazon has met with Taiwanese companies to understand their needs in order to better foster cross-border exchange.

The strategic plan has three main priorities which aim to develop new markets for Taiwanese products, cultivate Taiwanese industrial clustering, and develop a top 100 Taiwanese seller program.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/04
By: Wei Shu and Evelyn Kao 

Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan dropped 0.54 percent but remained above 10,000 points Tuesday, retreating from an upturn of about 250 points seen a day earlier as the United States and China reached a temporary truce in their trade conflict.

The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), or Taiex, closed down 54.33 points, or 0.54 percent, at 10,083.54, on turnover of NT$143.54 billion (US$5.42 billion).

The local market opened down 17.44 points at 10,120.43 on a mild technical correction from a session earlier and then moved between 10,061.70 and 10,126.02 before the close.

All major stock categories lost ground, with the cement sector losing the most at 1.55 percent, followed by textile stocks, which fell 1.19 percent.    [FULL  STORY]

Fubon analysts estimate Taiwan’s economic growth in 2019 will be around 2.41%

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/03
By: Alicia Nguyen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Fubon Financial Holding Company (FHC), a Taiwan-based financial investment management company on Nov. 3 held a seminar where it pointed out the four major obstacles to economic growth in 2019 and announced an estimate of the economic growth (GDP) around 2.41%.

One of the guest speakers at the forum, Taiwanese financial expert Lo Wei (羅瑋) said that the Taiwan economy might face four major economic risks in the year 2019, including the U.S.-China trade war, fluctuations to the U.S. economy, possible downturn in Chinese economic growth, and outflow of foreign funds to emerging markets such as Indonesia, India, and Thailand, CNA reports.

According to a Reuters, a recently updated economic outlook of the U.S. said that real gross domestic product would grow 2.4 percent next year, as growth in business investment and government purchases slow.

He added that if infrastructure and tax 2.0 reforms are not passed under bipartisan support, the U.S. economic growth rate is likely to slow down to 2.2%. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s economic growth rate is estimated to be 2.4%, and China will see a further drop to 6.2%.    [FULL  STORY]