BenQ is aiming to corner up to 5 per cent share of the Indian contact lens market in next two to three years.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/10/05
By: Jose Kalathil, Taiwan News, Contributing Writer

NEW DELHI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan-based optical material manufacturer BenQ

Materials, which has introduced its Miacare contact lens, is aiming to corner up to 5 per cent share of the Indian market in next two to three years.

The company also has plans to launch colored lenses here within a year as BenQ is aiming to tap the vision correction segment as well as the fashion wearable segment.

“The Indian market is around Rs 5.3 billion and we are targeting to have 5 per cent in 2-3 years time,” BenQ Materials Chairman & CEO Z C Chen told Press Trust of India.

The company is confident to create its space in the contact lens market in India, which is largely dominated by companies like Johnson & Johnson, Bausch & Lomb and Acqualens.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/04
By: Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 4 (CNA) The car market has felt the impact of Ghost Month, when many

local consumers tend not to buy big-ticket items to avoid bad luck, with sales falling more than 10 percent in September month-on-month, according to government statistics released Wednesday.

However, imported cars made a strong showing, with market share accounting for almost 50 percent in Taiwan, largely on the back of effective pricing strategies, market analysts said.

In September, local car sales totaled 31,375 units, down almost 15 percent from August, and also down 6.2 percent from a year earlier, the statistics indicate.

Ghost Month kicked off Aug. 22 and ran through Sept. 19 this year.   [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 3, 20170
By: Jackson Chang and Frances Huang

Taipei (CNA) – Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電)

moved higher Tuesday morning despite the announcement by the face of the company, Chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀), that he will retire in June 2018.

Buying in TSMC shares continued, indicating that investors remained confident in the chipmaker’s future operations and its leading position in the global wafer foundry business, in which the company holds a more than 50 percent share, dealers said.

As of 11:29 a.m., shares of TSMC had gained 0.91 percent to NT$222.50 (US$7.32), with 25.69 million shares changing hands on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, where the weighted index was up 0.10 percent at 10,475.28.    [FULL  STORY]

Next-Gen Transportation News
Date: October 3, 2017
By: Joseph Bebon –

Efficient Drivetrains Inc. (EDI), a California-based hybrid and electric drivetrain solutions provider, has announced a collaboration with Taiwanese bus manufacturer Master Transportation to develop an all-electric bus that meets “Made-in-Taiwan” rules.

According to a company announcement, the collaboration integrates the EDI PowerDrive EV all-electric drivetrain and EDI PowerSuite vehicle control software into a Master Transportation passenger bus utilizing battery packs from local supplier Yiding and LFP cells from Shenyang. EDI says the initial bus will be completed in the fourth quarter and is expected to be among the first of its kind to meet the Made-in-Taiwan policy – a government initiative created to establish a local supply chain by requiring that at least 70% of the components be from manufacturers in Taiwan.

The company says the modular architecture and inline form of the EDI PowerDrive product family has enabled Master Transportation to meet the policy and allows for easy optimization into a wide range of bus types.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/03
By: Tsa Yi-chu and Isabel Wang

Taipei, Oct. 3 (CNA) The Financial Supervisory Commission said Tuesday that

Taiwan’s banks are awash with cash, with a combined record high of more than NT$10 trillion (US$328.46 billion).

The deposit balance is at NT$36.82 trillion, whereas total loan balance rounds up at NT$26.79 trillion, leading to NT$10.03 trillion in idle cash reserves.

This statistic was collected till the end of August this year.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens  
Date: 2017/10/02
By: Matthew Fulco

Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy is bearing fruit, at least for the nation’s banks,

which are expanding their footprint across ASEAN in lockstep with their corporate clients.

Taiwan has long suffered from a saturated domestic banking market, prompting its banks to foray abroad for new business opportunities. Under the administration of former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), banks took advantage of the cross-Strait detente to open numerous branches in China.

More recently, Taiwanese banks have targeted Southeast Asia, and they now have a presence in all Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. The accelerated push into Southeast Asia is part of the Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration’s New Southbound Policy aimed at reducing Taiwan’s economic reliance on China.    [FULL  STORY]

The annual working hours in Taiwan are shorter than those of Singapore, Mexico, South Korea, and Greece.

Taiwan News 
Date:2017/10/01
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The latest statistics from Taiwan’s Labor Ministry revealed

that Taiwanese employees worked 70 hours less in 2016 than the previous year, and ranked fifth for longest working hours among developed countries.

The annual working hours in Taiwan in 2016 was 2,034 in average compared to 2,104 in 2015, due to the revision of the labor law implemented in 2016 that reduced the maximum weekly working hours to 40.

Compared to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Taiwan’s annual working hours stood as the fifth longest in 2016, following Singapore (2,366 /hrs), Mexico (2,255 /hrs), South Korea (2,069 /hrs), and Greece (2,035 /hrs).   [FULL  STORY]