Business and Finance

Catcher downbeat on first-half revenue

APPLE ANXIETY:The iPhone 6S would not sell as well as other handsets in Apple’s “S” series, and Taiwanese suppliers would see a fall in share prices as result, an analyst said

Taipei Times
Date:  Jan 07, 2016
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Catcher Technology Inc (可成), a major metal casing supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday gave a rare downbeat revenue forecast for the first half of this year due to sagging customer demand.

Catcher’s prediction came amid growing concerns that iPhones are losing their appeal among consumers, prompting the US technology giant to trim orders from its component suppliers to avoid bloating inventories.

“The market has been rather volatile — particularly over the past few weeks… Based on [forecast] figures from our major customers, we expect [revenue] in the first half to stay flat year-on-year,” Catcher chairman Allen Horng (洪水樹) told an investors’ teleconference.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s stock exchange the second weakest in Asia in 2015

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-01-05
By: Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang, Central News Agency

Taiwan’s stock market was the second worst performer in Asia in 2015, outpacing only Singapore, statistics released by the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) showed Tuesday.

The weighted index on Taiwan’s bourse fell 10.41 percent, or 969.20 points, in 2015, its steepest annual decline since 2011 when it fell 21.18 percent.

The Straits Times Index in Singapore was the only market in the region which underperformed the Taiwan market, falling more than 14 percent on the year, the TWSE said.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained around 9 percent on the year while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was down 8 percent.     [FULL  STORY]

U.S.-South Korea FTA affects Taiwan’s exports: research report

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/05
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Frances Huang

Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) The implementation of a free trade agreement (FTA) 201601050032t0001between the United States and South Korea has imposed an adverse impact on Taiwan’s exports to the U.S. market, a research report released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) showed Tuesday.

The FTA between the U.S. and South Korea became effective on March 15, 2012.

According to the report, which was conducted by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中經院) on behalf of the MOEA, Taiwan’s exports during the March 2014-February 2015 period fell 1.13 percent from the period of March 2011-Februry 2012.

However, South Korea’s exports to the U.S. market gained 23.44 percent during the three year period, the report showed.     [FULL  STORY]

Stock exchange eyes greater daily turnover

COMMON PRACTICE:The bourse is to allow listed firms to suspend trading prior to announcements that could affect their earnings in a bid to be more transparent

Taipei Times
Date:  Jan 06, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The local bourse aims to boost daily turnover by between 5 percent and 10 percent to more than NT$100 billion (US$3 billion) this year on the back of economic improvements, despite light volume so far, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp chairman Lee Sush-der (李述德) said yesterday.

Lee made the remarks at a public function where he attributed the TAIEX’s poor performance to weak sentiment amid a global selloff following China’s first-ever use of circuit breakers on its main exchanges.

Reasonable daily turnover should total between NT$130 billion and NT$150 billion, with the nation’s 1,800 listed firms having a collective capitalization of NT$7 trillion, the securities official said.     [FULL  STORY]

Largan suffers 30% drop in sales for December

The China Times
Date: January 6, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI — Smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co. (大立光) reported a 30-percent month-on-month decline in sales for December, with market analysts attributing the sharp fall to disappointing demand for the latest iPhone models.

Largan, which derives about 40 percent of its total revenue from Apple Inc., failed to reap significant benefits from the launch of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus which both hit the global market in September, analysts said.

In December, Largan’s consolidated sales stood at NT$3.98 billion (US$120 million), down about 30 percent from the NT$5.71 billion recorded in November. The December figure was also 31 percent lower than a year earlier, and marked the lowest level since February, when sales were reported at NT$2.62 billion.     [FULL  STORY]

Asian currency depreciation battle intensifies in new year

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/04
By: Chiu Sheng-po and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) The trend toward currency depreciation among competing

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Asia-Pacific economies grew more intense on Monday, with the Taiwan dollar’s half-percent fall against the U.S. dollar among the more modest declines compared with regional rivals.

The Taiwan dollar fell 0.51 percent against the greenback to close at NT$33.236 against the U.S. dollar in Taipei on Monday, the lowest in three months.

But that paled against the South Korean won’s 1.28 percent fall and the Australian dollar’s 1.27 percent fall against the U.S. dollar, dealers said.

The Taiwan dollar depreciated 4.08 percent against the greenback in 2015, the dealers said, and they expected the depreciation to continue this year due to global economic uncertainty and last month’s interest rate hike in the U.S., which has drawn funds back to the U.S. to hedge risks.     [FULL  STORY]

Survey finds wearable device usage on rise in Taiwan

Taiwan Today
Date: January 4, 2016

Around 930,000 individuals in Taiwan owned wearable devices in 2015,

Smartbands are the most popular wearable devices as determined in a recent survey released by Industry for Information Industry. (Courtesy of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)

Smartbands are the most popular wearable devices as determined in a recent survey released by Industry for Information Industry. (Courtesy of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)

roughly 4 percent of the total population and up from 1.7 percent the year before, according to a recently released survey by Taipei City-based Institute for Information Industry.

Smartbands top the list at 68.3 percent, followed by smart watches at 40.4 percent. The gadgets possess fashion appeal as well as functionality, with 58.5 percent reporting daily usage.

Nearly 65 percent credited the devices with helping them exercise more effectively, while 54.2 percent relied on them for health monitoring, 47.9 percent schedule reminders and 41.1 percent to connect to other smart devices.

Institute analyst Kevin Han said the study by Innovative Digitech-Enabled Applications and Services Institute under the state-backed III revealed that an increasing number of global high-tech heavyweights are rushing to enter the market with a wide range of new wearable devices.     [FULL  STORY]

Absence of innovation weakens outlook

SMART AND FRIENDLY:After an initial weekend of record sales, new Apple Inc devices failed to impress consumers last year and manufacturers are feeling the bite

Taipei Times
Date:  Jan 05, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) stood at 46.6 last month, up from 45.1 in November, as local manufacturers have yet to finalize inventory adjustments due to tepid external demand and the absence of any major innovations for technology devices, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.

Operating conditions for the manufacturing industry have deteriorated over the past six months, and firms have dim business outlooks, the Taipei-based think tank said.

“Despite the easing pace of deterioration, the global slowdown has yet to bottom out judging from the latest data,” CIER president Wu Chung-shu (吳中書) told a media briefing.

The December data confirmed a disappointing year for Taiwanese firms’ exports and industrial output, both of which might drop to their lowest levels since the global financial crisis struck in 2008 to 2009.

The PMI seeks to gauge the health of local manufacturers, with scores above 50 signifying business expansion and values below the neutral mark indicating contraction.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s exports set to slide for 11th month in a row: minister

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/03
By: Chiu Po-sheng and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Jan. 3 (CNA) Taiwan is likely to report a decline in exports for the 11th

By Chiu Po-sheng and Lee Hsin-Yin

By Chiu Po-sheng and Lee Hsin-Yin

consecutive month in December and could see a 10 percent annual decline in exports for 2015 as a whole, Finance Minister Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said Sunday.

Exports in December could post another double-digit fall, he said when offering a preview of Taiwan’s export data for December and 2015 as a whole that will be released this week.

If Chang’s warning turns out to be true, exports will have slid by double-digits for the seventh month in a row, the worst performance since 2009 when the world economy was battered by the global financial crisis.     [FULL  STORY]

About 930,000 own wearables: poll

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 04, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

About 930,000 people, or 4 percent of Taiwan’s population, owned wearable devices last year — mainly to collect and track useful health information — an Institute for Information Industry (資策會) survey showed.

Citing the survey’s results, the government-sponsored Institute for Information Industry’s research arm Foreseeing Innovative New Digiservices (FIND) said that compared with 2014, last year there were double the number of wearable owners and the penetration rate was 2.3 percentage points higher.

FIND said that new entrants to the workforce between 25 and 29 were the main users of wearable devices last year.     [FULL  STORY]