Business and Finance

E Ink announces strategic partnership

CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION:The company said it would work with its Chinese partner to expand e-paper displays to mobile phones, electronic labels and price tags

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 27, 2015
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), which supplies e-paper displays for Amazon.com’s Kindle

E Ink Group chairman Frank Ko holds up a Chinese-made cellphone that uses an e-paper display in this undated photograph. Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times

E Ink Group chairman Frank Ko holds up a Chinese-made cellphone that uses an e-paper display in this undated photograph. Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times

series, yesterday announced a strategic partnership with Chinese LCD panel maker Jiangxi Holitech Technology Co Ltd (江西合力泰科技) aimed at gaining a stronger foothold in China’s e-paper display market.

The partnership is the latest progress made by E Ink to promote its small-sized e-paper displays as demand for e-readers slows.

E Ink said it would collaborate with Jiangxi Holitech to expand the use of e-paper displays to mobile phones, retail electronic labels and digital price-tags, as well as to wearable devices, according to a joint statement issued in China.

“The strategic cooperation with Jiangxi Holitech will help the company boost its market share and shipments of different segments of China’s e-paper display market,” E Ink chairman and chief executive officer Frank Ko (柯富仁) said in the statement.

Based on the agreement, E Ink is to supply e-paper displays and modules to Jiangxi Holitech as well as providing advanced technologies to help the Chinese firm develop end products that utilize its e-paper displays.     [FULL  STORY]

Oil expected from Chad as Taiwan strives for energy self-sufficiency

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/25
By: Milly Lin and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Oct. 25 (CNA) Taiwan’s state-run energy supplier, CPC Corp.,Taiwan, is expected to receive its first barrel of crude oil from Chad in 2019, a senior official at the company has revealed.

CPC started investing in the Chad oil field in 2006, with exploration taking place the following year, said Liao Tsang-lung (廖滄龍), CEO of CPC’s Exploration and Production Business Division.

Output is slated to begin in 2019, Liao said, noting the company is now negotiating with the Chad government about piping the oil.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s cell phone shipments could fall in Q4: Digitimes

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-25
By: CNA

Cell phone shipments from Taiwan for the fourth quarter are expected to fall from a year earlier reflecting a decline in orders placed by international brands to Taiwanese contract makers, according to Taipei-based Digitimes Research.

In a research report, Digitimes said that Taiwan’s cell phone shipments for the October-December period are expected to fall 21.3% from a year earlier to 19.88 million units. However, the fourth quarter figure will be 1.7% higher than the third quarter, the research firm said.

According to the Digitimes forecast, it will be the second consecutive quarter for Taiwan’s cell phone shipments to fall below the 20 million unit mark. In the third quarter, the country’s cell phone shipments stood at 19.54 million units, down 11.5% from 20.07 million units recorded in the second quarter, the data showed.     [FULL  STORY]

SinoPac to acquire brokerages

OPERATIONAL EXPANSION:The company said it hopes to tap into the vast Asian markets by acquiring BEA Wealth Management Services and Tung Shing Holdings

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 26, 2015
By: Ted Chen  /  Staff reporter

SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券) on Friday said it is to acquire two brokerages in a bid to bolster its wealth management business in Taiwan and expand the operational scale of SinoPac Securities (Asia) Ltd (永豐金證券亞洲), its Hong Kong-based subsidiary.

SinoPac Securities plans to acquire BEA Wealth Management Services Taiwan Ltd (東亞證券) for NT$375 million (US$11.53 million) and Tung Shing Holdings Co (東盛控股) for HK$540 million (US$69.68 million), the securities arm of SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) announced at a news conference in Taipei.

BEA Wealth Management is a Taiwan-based subsidiary of Hong Kong’s Bank of East Asia Ltd (BEA, 東亞銀行) specializing in re-consigned trading and has two service locations.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan could report economic contraction in Q3: DBS Bank

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/24
By: Tsai Yi-chu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 24 (CNA) The Singapore-based DBS Bank has forecast that Taiwan will report an economic contraction for the third quarter due to worse-than-expected export performance amid slowing global demand.

DBS said that Taiwan’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the July-September period is likely to have contracted by 0.3 percent from a year earlier, lagging behind the bank’s earlier forecast of a 0.6 percent increase.

The Singapore banking group said that the weaker-than-expected third quarter economy in Taiwan largely reflected falling exports, while a drop in local industrial production also dealt another blow to the local economy.     [FULL  STORY]

Samsung top smartphone vendor in Taiwan in September

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-24
By: CNA

Samsung Electronics of South Korea ranked as the best smartphone seller in Taiwan, in terms of sales volume, in September, industry sources said Friday.

The sources said Samsung replaced Taiwan’s HTC as the top vendor in terms of sales, taking a 23.4% share of the local market in September.

HTC fell to second place, with a 17.5% share, followed by Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer, which grabbed a 15.9% share after its recent entry to the budget smartphone market to offset the effects of a slow global PC market.

Japan’s Sony was fourth with a 10.8% share, followed by Apple (9.3%), whose latest iPhones models did not go on sale in Taiwan until October.     [FULL  STORY]

Sales of wholesale, retail, food services sectors down in September

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/23
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Oct. 23 (CNA) Taiwan’s wholesale, retail, and food services sectors 201510230028t0001totaled NT$1,188.1 billion (US$36.47 billion) in revenues in September, down 4.5 percent year-on-year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Friday.

The figures represented the seventh consecutive month of negative growth for the three sectors combined, the ministry said.

Wholesale businesses saw their revenues fall 5.3 percent in September year-on-year, while retail sales were 3 percent lower than a year earlier.     [FULL  STORY]

HTC’s One A9 to kickstart revamped design across product lines

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-23
By: CNA

Taiwan’s HTC plans to introduce more high-end and mid-tier handsets with a

HTC One A9 smartphones. (Photo/Keye Chang)

HTC One A9 smartphones. (Photo/Keye Chang)

design similar to the new One A9, pinning its hopes for survival on design changes to attract more customers.

“Starting with the One A9, our design language will enter a different and fashionable phase,” Jack Tong, president of HTC North Asia, said Wednesday at the Taiwan launch of the 5-inch metal-clad smartphone.

He described the One A9 as a “milestone” for HTC after the company released the One M9 flagship phone in March this year using an appearance similar to its predecessor, the One M8, in 2014 and the One M7 in 2013.     [FULL  STORY]

Industrial output contracts 5.32%

INVENTORY BACKLOG:The Department of Statistics said that the nation’s drop in output was linked to an inventory adjustment event that is expected to continue

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 24, 2015
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The nation’s industrial output contracted by 5.32 percent last month from a year earlier, virtually unchanged from a revised 5.75 percent decline in August, as inventory digestion dragged on for all makers except chemical product suppliers, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

“The data show the industry has yet to emerge from a protracted inventory adjustment, which has extended into the current quarter,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Yang Kuei-hsien (楊貴顯) told a media briefing.

The situation might improve with the advent of Christmas sales season in the West, but could remain soft compared with levels a year earlier, Yang said.    [FULL  STORY]

Over 50% of Taiwan workers earn under NT$40,000 per month: poll

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/22
By: Chen Chih-chung and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 22 (CNA) The monthly pay for more than 50 percent of 201510220021t0002employees in Taiwan is less than NT$40,000 (US$1,234), a non-governmental poll showed Thursday, while a government survey released the same day found that salaries average NT$50,633 per month.

According to the poll by psychological counseling group Teacher Chang Foundation and Citigroup Foundation, 53 percent of workers in Taiwan earn less than NT$40,000 per month and rated their satisfaction with their financial situation at 6 on a 10-point scale.

Meanwhile, the government survey that was released earlier in the day showed the country’s average monthly wage for the first eight months of the year at NT$50,633.     [FULL  STORY]