Business and Finance

Export orders rebound on electronics

EARLY UPTICK: With orders bouncing back from a June dip before the traditional peak in fall, the economics ministry forecast exports this year would beat last year’s record

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 21, 2018
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Export orders last month unexpectedly bounced back 8 percent year-on-year, thanks to growing demand for semiconductors and electronics components ahead of Apple Inc’s launch of its new iPhones, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

That easily exceeded the ministry’s estimates last month that export orders that month would grow by between 0.7 percent and 3.3 percent.

Export orders jumped to US$41.8 billion, from US$38.72 billion, getting back on a growth track after dipping 0.1 percent in June, ministry statistics showed.

Orders from China and the US grew the fastest, at 12.5 percent and 8.4 percent to US$11.74 billion and US$10.95 billion respectively, setting a July record, the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan will attend APEC Summit: foreign ministry

Members of the presidential envoy to the APEC Summit not yet decided 

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/08/20
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said

World’s leaders attend the 2017 APEC Leaders Meetings in Da Nang, Vietnam (By Central News Agency)

Sunday the country will attend the coming APEC leaders’ summit and the ministry is making preparations.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Week will commence between November 12 to 18 in Papua New Guinea, with the week-long summit culminating with the APEC Economic Leaders Meetings on the last day. Leaders or representatives of 21 member economies are expected to gather in Port Moresby, the capital of the South Pacific island state, including the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, and Australia.

MOFA Spokesperson Andrew Lee (李憲章) said as an APEC member, Taiwan “will surely attend the APEC summit this year” and that the ministry is in preparation, reported Central News Agency.

Declining to talk about the details, Lee said instead that the Taiwanese government has been in close contact with the host country which has followed custom procedures so far.     [FULL  STORY]

China’ s direct investment in Taiwan decreases 5.8% YoY from January to July 2018

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/08/20
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–According to the statistics of Investment Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, 80 cases of investment from China were approved with an amount of US$148,595,000 from January to July 2018, indicating a 5.83% decrease in the foreign direct investment (FDI) amount from China compared with the same period of 2017.

The agency’s statistics also show that aggregated from July 2009 to July 2018, 1,167 cases of inward investment from China were approved with a total investment amount added up to US$2,105,144,000.

The statistics show 2,029 foreign FDI projects with a total amount of US$6,005,463,000 were approved from January to July 2018, showing an increase of 9.5% in the number of cases, and an increase of 36.26% in FDI amount compared with the same period of 2017.

In terms of Taiwan’s outbound investment (except China), 335 projects were registered from January to July 2018 with a total amount of US$6,596,087,000, indicating a increase of 24.54 % in the number of cases, and an increase of 13.05% in the amount as compared with the same period of 2017, according to the commission’s statistics.
[FULL  STORY]

Terry Gou to bag over NT$3.2 billion in Hon Hai cash dividends

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/20
By: Chung Jung-feng and Frances Huang

Taipei, Aug. 20 (CNA) Terry Gou (郭台銘), chairman of Hon Hai Precision

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Chairman Terry Gou

Industry Co., is expected to receive more than NT$3.2 billion (US$104 million) in cash after the company issues heavy cash dividends to its shareholders later this week.

Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, is scheduled Friday to give out NT$2 in cash dividends per share owned by its shareholders for the 2017 earnings per share of NT$8.01.

As Gou currently owns about 1.62 billion Hon Hai shares, he is expected to pocket a total of NT$3.24 billion in cash dividends.

In addition, Hon Hai is also planning to cut its paid-in capital by NT$34.66 billion, or about 20 percent, to NT$138.63 billion.    [FULL  STORY]

Export orders rebound on electronics

EARLY UPTICK: With orders bouncing back from a June dip before the traditional peak in fall, the economics ministry forecast exports this year would beat last year’s record

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 21, 2018
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Export orders last month unexpectedly bounced back 8 percent year-on-year, thanks to growing demand for semiconductors and electronics components ahead of Apple Inc’s launch of its new iPhones, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

That easily exceeded the ministry’s estimates last month that export orders that month would grow by between 0.7 percent and 3.3 percent.

Export orders jumped to US$41.8 billion, from US$38.72 billion, getting back on a growth track after dipping 0.1 percent in June, ministry statistics showed.

Orders from China and the US grew the fastest, at 12.5 percent and 8.4 percent to US$11.74 billion and US$10.95 billion respectively, setting a July record, the ministry said.    [FULL  STORY]

Minimum wage hike should boost economy: Lai

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-08-17

Premier William Lai said Friday that a raise in the minimum wage should

Premier William Lai said Friday that a raise in the minimum wage should help boost Taiwan’s economy. (CNA photo)

help boost Taiwan’s economy.

Lai’s words came after a review committee announced that the minimum wage will go up by 5% from January next year.

Lai thanked both employers and employees for their hard work in the last year. He said he hopes the work force will continue to work hard and strengthen the economy.

Lin also responded to speculation that higher wages may drive up the prices of goods and services. He said government figures suggest the wage adjustment will have a minimal impact on inflation. He said the government will work to keep inflation stable to allow the public to enjoy the benefits of higher wages.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan manufacturing sector output up for 7th straight quarter

Taiwan News  
Date: 2018/08/17
By:  Central News Agency

The value of goods produced by Taiwan’s manufacturers in the second

Taiwan manufacturing sector output up for 7th straight quarter (CNA)

quarter rose for the seventh consecutive quarter year-on-year, data released Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) showed.

Manufacturing output totaled NT$3.48 trillion (US$113 billion) in the second quarter, up 9.05 percent from the same period a year earlier, after a 3.30 percent year-on-year rise in the first quarter, according to the data.

It was the seventh straight quarter of growth for Taiwan’s manufacturers. The last time their output value fell was in the third quarter of 2016, when it slid 1.99 percent from a year earlier.

The MOEA said the production value of the electronics component sector, which accounted for more than 26 percent of the total of the manufacturing sector, rose 5.96 percent year-on-year in the second quarter to NT$922.4 billion.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan to attend APEC mining ministers’ meeting

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/17
By: Liao Yu-yang and Flor Wang

Taipei, Aug. 17 (CNA) Traveling at the head of a delegation, Deputy

CNA file photo

Economics Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) will leave for Papua New Guinea next Tuesday to attend a mining ministers’ meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

According to Bureau of Mines Deputy Director-General Chou Kuo-tung (周國棟), Taiwan’s delegates will share the country’s experience in amending the Mining Act with other APEC economies in the Aug. 23 ministers’ meeting, to be held in Port Moresby, along with the Mining Week meeting from Aug. 20-22.   [FULL  STORY]

Big guns prepare for trade war

TIME TO STRATEGIZE: Pegatron said it might increase capacity in the Czech Republic, Mexico or at home, while Quanta said it could boost production in the US or Germany

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 18, 2018
By: Bloomberg

From iPhones to computers, the manufacturing powerhouses behind many of the world’s electronics are preparing to move chunks of production away from China and toward such far-flung locales as Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) — who became a billionaire making Apple Inc gizmos — started the ball rolling when he opened a US$10 billion display plant in the heart of the US, a move that now seems prescient.

As tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalate, a growing cohort of his Taiwanese peers have drawn up plans to shift production abroad or are devising contingencies for costly new facilities.

Taiwan’s largest corporations form a crucial link in the global tech supply chain, assembling devices from sprawling Chinese production bases that the likes of HP Inc and Dell then slap their labels on. In the past week, corporate leaders, including the chief executive officers of Pegatron Corp (和碩) and Inventec Corp (英業達), said on earnings calls that they have come up with ways to mitigate the effects of a trade war.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Acer rises in global laptop ranking, Apple falls

Taiwan’s Acer, Asus fourth and fifth most popular laptop brands in Q2 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/08/16
By: Renée Salmonsen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A list published by Taiwanese intelligence

Acer climbs in international popularity. (Image from Unsplash)

provider TrendForce shows that Taiwan’s Acer brand laptop has climbed the global ranking in laptops purchased during the second quarter.

TrendForce’s list shows that 41 million laptops total have been sold worldwide this quarter, from April 1 through June 20. Sales are up 10.2% from the first quarter.     [FULL  STORY]