Business and Finance

TrendForce sees 8.8% growth for TSMC

INDUSTRY PREDICTIONS: TSMC leads the foundry industry rankings, followed by GlobalFoundries, UMC, Samsung Electronics and SMIC, the research firm said

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 30, 2017
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is likely to see above-par revenue growth of 8.8 percent annually this year as more clients adopt its advanced 10 nanometer (nm) technology, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday.

TSMC’s revenue is expected to expand to US$32.04 billion this year from last year’s US$29.44 billion, which would account for a 55.9 percent share of the world’s semiconductor foundry market and put it at the top of the industry’s rankings, the Taipei-based researcher said.

The Hsinchu-based chipmaker’s growth rate is outpacing the 7.1 percent expansion projected for the whole foundry industry, and this is going to be the fifth consecutive year it has posted 5 percent growth, TrendForce’s latest report said.

The global foundry industry is expected to generate US$57.3 billion in revenue this year, TrendForce said.    [FULL  STORY]

ASE shares soar on merger approval; company to raise wages

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. obtains permission from China to merge with Siliconware Precision Industries Co. 

Taiwan News  
Date: 2017/11/28
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei, Nov. 27 — Shares of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), the world’s

ASE Group (By Central News Agency)

largest integrated circuit packaging and testing services provider, climbed sharply in mid-morning trade Monday after the company obtained conditional approval from China for a merger with Siliconware Precision Industries Co. (SPIL), dealers said.

ASE also announced over the weekend that it was planning to raise wages at its flagship production base in Kaohsiung by 3-5 percent and hire about 1,000 new workers as part of its expansion plans.

As of 10:53 a.m. Monday, shares of ASE had risen 8.83 percent to NT$41.90 (US$1.40) with 116.56 million shares changing hands. The buying also extended to Siliconware, whose shares were 3.41 percent higher at NT$50.10.    [FULL  STORY]

FPG steel mill in Vietnam put on environmental watch list: report

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/28
By: Fan Ching-yi and Frances Huang 

Hanoi, Vietnam, Nov. 28 (CNA) A steel mill owned by the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), one of Taiwan’s largest conglomerates, has been put on a special environmental watch list by Vietnamese authorities, according to a media report Tuesday.

The report on the Vietnamese news site VnExpress said the inclusion of Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp. on the watch list was due to a toxic waste spill at the steel plant in 2016.

In an interview with VnExpress, Hoang Van Thuc, deputy director general of the Vietnam Environment Administration, said the FPG steel plant was among 28 big companies listed as potential sources of pollution.

The environmental watch list, compiled by Vietnamese authorities for the first time, is subject to change based on the performance of the companies listed, he said.
[FULL  STORY]

Inventec bullish on shipments

FALLING SHARES: Investors have been worried that the delayed launch of Apple Inc’s HomePod would negatively affect Inventec’s Q4 shipments of smart devices

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 29, 2017
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

Inventec Corp (英業達), an assembler of Apple Inc’s AirPods and HomePods, remains optimistic about its shipments of “smart” devices this quarter, despite Apple delaying the launch of the HomePod to the first quarter of next year.

“Total shipments of Inventec’s smart devices this quarter is to outpace last quarter by a mid-single-digit percentage as we forecast, reaching a peak for this year,” an Inventec official said by telephone.

Inventec’s plants in Shanghai and Nanjing, China, are running at their full capacity to meet robust demand for smart devices this quarter, the official added.

The US company earlier this month pushed the release date of its Siri-powered HomePod smart speaker from next month to early next year, saying in a statement that “it needs more time before the product is ready for customers.”    [FULL  STORY]

Public banks could lose NT$14.8 billion in Ching Fu case: Ministry

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-11-27

Taiwan’s finance ministry is projecting that a group of nine public banks could lose some NT$14.8 billion (nearly half a billion US dollars) over a scandal involving the nation’s largest private shipbuilder — Ching Fu Shipbuilding.

The Ministry of Finance and the Financial Supervisory Commission made the projection in a report which they delivered to the legislature’s finance committee on Monday.

The scandal involves a defense ministry contract to build six minesweepers. The fraud allegedly occurred when Ching Fu obtained a NT$20.5 billion loan from nine domestic lenders led by First Commercial Bank. The banks went on to lend Ching Fu NT$15.4 billion, or about three-quarters of the total. But then they halted the loans after the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office launched an investigation in August into Ching Fu’s activities. First Commercial Bank then filed a criminal lawsuit against Ching Fu Shipbuilding in October for breach of contract.    [FULL  STORY]

Economy still flashing ‘green light’ but momentum weakens

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/27
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Frances Huang

Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) The local economy continued to flash a “green light,” pointing to

CNA file photo

steady growth, but momentum weakened with an index gauging economic conditions falling month-on-month in October, the National Development Council (NDC) said Monday.

The NDC said the composite index of monitoring indicators reached 23 in October, down five from September, though the latest figure still remained in the “green light” range of 23-31.

The September index was revised down to 28 points from the previous reading of 30 by the NDC.

October is the third consecutive month the index has flashed a green light, data compiled by the NDC showed.    [FULL  STORY]

Premier expects social enterprises to be signature industry

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/27
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Premier Lai Ching-te (賴清德) on Monday encouraged society to nurture social enterprises so that they become a signature industry in Taiwan’s economy and contribute to the social good, environmental sustainability, and industrial innovation.

Speaking at the Social Enterprise Financial Forum in Taipei, Lai said he would continue efforts to create a startup-friendly environment, citing a range of measures in place or pending review in the Legislature that can help social entrepreneurs overcome difficulties.

Other keynote speakers at the forum, which focused on strategies for social entrepreneurship development, stressed the important role of social enterprises in achieving the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan hopes to join CPTPP in 2020

TOUGH TALKS: The political challenge is gaining the approval of the 11 nations as they would each propose their own terms, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua said

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 28, 2017
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

The nation has a chance of joining the second round of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in 2020 at the earliest, but political uncertainties in each CPTPP member nation remain a potential hurdle, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

“The political challenge is more difficult than getting Taiwan’s economic and trade environment ready when it comes to negotiating with each CPTPP member,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee.

During the APEC leaders’ summit in Vietnam earlier this month, trade ministers from 11 Asia-Pacific nations announced that they would push head with a regional free-trade deal following the US’ withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and rename the trade initiative the CPTPP.    [FULL  STORY]

October shows steady year-to-year growth in retail sales for Taiwan

Retail sales in October are the highest on record for the month in Taiwan, retail growth slows slightly after September’s high mark

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/26
By:  Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Ministry of Economic Affairs has announced that retail sales

Retail sales show steady year-to-year growth (Image: Pixabay)

in October are the highest on record for the month in Taiwan. The news comes upon improved economic forecasts for the country after the third quarter analysis for 2017.

Officials reported that Mid-Autumn Festival and the extended National Double Ten holiday encouraged consumers to spend more during the month.

The increase in retail sales also reflects a continued increase in year-to-year retail purchases for the third consecutive month over sales in 2016, reports the CNA.

However, retail growth has reportedly slowed slightly after its high mark of 4.3 percent growth in September.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan-U.S. TIFA talks may be suspended this year: trade official

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/26
By: Ku Chuan and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Nov. 26 (CNA) Talks between Taiwan and the United States under the bilateral

Minister without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中), who also heads the Cabinet’s Office of Trade Negotiations/CNA file photo

Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) will likely not be held this year because the U.S. has yet to fill its vacant deputy trade representative posts, a local official has said.

According to Minister without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中), who also heads the Cabinet’s Office of Trade Negotiations, the talks have been conducted by the two countries’ deputy trade ministers since 2004.

But the three deputy representative positions in the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) office are currently vacant, and while the Donald Trump administration has named people to take those positions they have yet to be confirmed by Congress, Deng said.

Even if the U.S. Congress quickly approves the nominations, “there won’t be time to hold (the TIFA talks) this year,” given the length of time it takes to process the appointments at an administrative level, Deng told CNA.    [FULL  STORY]