Business and Finance

Official: No more excess withdrawals from US defense account

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-10-11

A defense ministry official says there will not be any more excess withdrawals from Taiwan’s defense account at the US Federal Reserve Bank.

Taiwan’s defense ministry set up the account in order to facilitate arms sales transactions with the US. However, the government statistics office recently found that the US has withdrawn more than the agreed amount on the latest arms sales.

Chen Kuo-sheng, the director of the defense ministry’s comptroller bureau, answered lawmaker’s questions about the withdrawal on Wednesday.   [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission slaps Qualcomm with record US$773 million fine

Largest FTC fine ever targeting a single company: reports

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/10/11
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Fair Trade Commission on Wednesday announced it was

Qualcomm slapped with record fine by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission. (By Associated Press)

fining U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm NT$23.4 billion (US$773 million) for violations of the Fair Trade Act in a record amount for a single company so far.

The investigation leading up to the ruling began in February 2015 and included study trips to South Korea and probes of a wide range of domestic and foreign microchip and smartphone manufacturers, the Central News Agency reported.

Since the violations extend over a period of seven years, the FTC considered the issue as serious, explaining the record level of the fine, the highest for a single company since the independent government agency started operating about 25 years ago.
[FULL  STORY]

Qualcomm to appeal anti-trust fine decision in Taiwan

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/12
By: Jackson Chang, Tsai Yi-chu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 12 (CNA) Qualcomm Inc., a U.S.-based smartphone chip designer, said Thursday that it will appeal a decision handed down by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to slap a more-than NT$23 billion (US$760 million) fine for violation of the country’s antitrust regulations.

“The fine bears no rational relationship to the amount of Qualcomm’s revenues or activities in Taiwan, and Qualcomm will appeal the amount of the fine and the method used to calculate it,” the U.S. firm said in a statement.

Qualcomm said it is planning to seek a stay on any required measures and appeal the decision to the Taiwanese courts after receiving the FTC’s formal decision, which is expected over the next few weeks.    [FULL  STORY]

Exports jump as brands build seasonal inventory

HOLIDAYS:China’s Singles’ Day shopping event next month and the beginning of shopping for the Christmas season have businesses increasing their inventories

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 12, 2017
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The nation’s exports last month spiked 28.1 percent from a year earlier to a record high of US$28.9 billion, as demand for electronic components gained traction ahead of high sales seasons in China and the West, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.

The growth momentum might continue but slow to a single-digit percentage this month due to fewer working days and a high comparison base last year, it projected.

“Technology brands worldwide are building up inventory to take advantage of a stronger than expected global economy, bolstering business of firms in their supply chains,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing.

Taiwanese firms supply chips, camera lenses, casings, touch panels and other critical components to Apple Inc and China’s Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動), Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and other brands.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan should accelerate industrial upgrading: official

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/10
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Romulo Huang

Taipei, Oct. 10 (CNA) Taiwan should further accelerate its industrial upgrading by increasing investment in research and development, and in its invention and innovation programs, an official of the National Development Council (NDC) said Tuesday.

Commenting on the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook released that day, in which the IMF adjusted upward its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth to 2 percent this year, from 1.7 percent estimated in April, NDC Deputy Minister Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮) said that Taiwan’s economic structure remains solid and he attributed the nation’s improved economic performance mainly to global economic recovery which, he said, led to Taiwan’s export increase.

He warned, however, that IMF has issued an alert for Taiwan by lowering its forecast for the nation’s economic growth to 2.2 percent in 2022, from 2.5 percent it predicted in April.    [FULL  STORY]

Delta monthly revenue sets consecutive record

CONTRIBUTIONS:Power electronics, which make up 55% of the company’s revenue, includes solutions for electric vehicles, embedded power and components

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 11, 2017
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the nation’s leading power and thermal solutions provider, yesterday reported last month its highest monthly revenue, the second consecutive month the company has broken its record.

Delta’s revenue was NT$20.74 billion (US$682.8 million), an increase of 5.79 percent from NT$19.61 billion posted a year ago and up 4 percent from August’s NT$18.73 billion, Delta said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

“The power electronics segment contributed 55 percent of Delta’s revenue last month,” it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Labor fund generated NT$191.86 billion profit in Jan.-Aug.

The labor fund has generated a return on investment (ROI) of NT$191.86 billion (US$6.28 billion) in the first eight months of this year, with a 5.78% rate of return, Deputy Director Liu Li-ju (劉麗茹) of the Bureau of Labor Funds said Sunday.

Taiwan News  
Date: 2017/10/09
By  Central News Agency

Meanwhile, the National Pension Insurance Fund managed by the bureau has reached NT$286.7 billion after creating an ROI of NT$16.11 billion during the
The labor fund has generated a return on investment (ROI) of NT$191.86 billion (US$6.28 billion) in the first eight months of this year, with a 5.78% rate of return, Deputy Director Liu Li-ju (劉麗茹) of the Bureau of Labor Funds said Sunday.

According to the bureau’s data, the labor fund, composed of labor retirement funds accumulated under the old and new pension schemes, the labor insurance fund, the occupational accident relief fund, and the fund allocated to pay for wage arrears, has totaled NT$3.5156 trillion as of the end of August.    [FULL  STORY]

Technology trade deficit holding back industry: Legislature

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/09
By: Justin Su, Liao Yu-yang and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Oct. 9 (CNA) The Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center has found that Taiwan has

CNA file photo

grown increasingly reliant on the U.S. for imports of technological products and know-how over the last decade, sparking concerns that the growth of the country’s industries is being restrained, according to a report issued Monday.

According to the report, the Budget Center found that Taiwan’s reliance on U.S. technology imports has risen from 36.26 percent in 2002 to 76.24 percent in 2014, while reliance on such imports from other countries that are not major sources of Taiwan’s technical knowledge has fallen from 23.56 percent in 2002 to 8.39 percent in 2014.

This suggests an increasing reliance on one country for technical expertise, which is seriously limiting for Taiwan’s industries and exacerbates the country’s growing technology trade deficit.    [FULL  STORY]

Bank may be fined over hacking theft

CYBERHEIST:Two suspects have been arrested in Sri Lanka over the theft of US$60 million at Far Eastern International Bank, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 10, 2017
By Ted Chen  /  Staff reporter

Far Eastern International Bank (遠東商銀) could be fined between NT$2 million and NT$10 million (US$65,842 and US$329,207) if a hacking incident at the lender was found to be a result of lax internal controls, the Financial Supervisory Commission said.

The company is expected to submit a full report on the incident to the commission before the end of this week.

It has also been ordered to process large transactions manually until it has shored up its information security measures.

A preliminary investigation by the commission’s Department of Information Management suggests that the malware which facilitated the cyberheist had infiltrated Far Eastern Bank’s systems when one of its employees opened an infected e-mail.    [FULL  STORY]

TSMC to invest US$20 billion in Taiwan 3-nano plant

Chairman more concerned about Samsung than about Chinese competitors

Taiwan News  
Date: 2017/10/08
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (台積電)

TSMC Chairman Morris Chang. (By Central News Agency)

wants to invest US$20 billion (NT$607 billion) in its advanced 3-nano fab which as recently announced it plans to build in Tainan, company founder and chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) said.

There had been reports that TSMC, the largest contract chip manufacturer in the world, had been considering the United States as the location for its most sophisticated chip factory, but it announced last month it had picked a science park in Tainan instead.

Chang told the Bloomberg news service that the project, once fully operational, would require at least US$15 billion (NT$455 billion) as a conservative estimate, but to be on the safe side, TSMC could invest up to US$20 billion.    [FULL  STORY]