Business and Finance

Inventec to ship Xiaomi’s first laptop in early 2016

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-23
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

Taiwanese contract notebook maker Inventec is working with Xiaomi of China, the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker, to produce Xiaomi’s first laptop, which is expected to ship early next year.

Inventec chair Richard Lee confirmed the news to reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the 12th cross-Taiwan Strait forum on technical standards for information technology, saying that Inventec has also manufactured tablet computers for Xiaomi.

He said the upcoming Xiaomi laptop is expected to start shipping in the first or second quarter of 2016, amid optimism that it will draw attention from the current 200 million users of Xiaomi smartphones. “At least they will create a different look for their laptops, just like their smartphones,” Lee said, referring to the Beijing-based company’s stylish phones with premium components at mid-range prices.     [FULL  STORY]

Decline in industrial output accelerates

FALLING REVENUE:The Ministry of Economic Affairs said that domestic sales took a hit due to less orders of PC-related products and a decrease in orders from Japan

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 24, 2015
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

The nation’s industrial production index plunged 5.46 percent to 104.47 points last month from a year earlier, following a 2.99 percent annual decline reported in July, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

“The size of the annual decline was larger than the ministry expected and marks the biggest annual drop in industrial production since March 2013,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Yang Kuei-hsien (楊貴顯) told a news conference.

“One of the main reasons that caused the decline in output was slower-than-expected inventory digestion in the semiconductor industry,” Yang said.

Yang said the launch of Apple Inc’s iPhone 6S significantly boosted the output of optical module products last month, but rendered limited benefit to the semiconductor industry due to high inventory levels.     [FULL  STORY]

France seeking more investment from Taiwan

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/22
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) France has put a high priority on attracting more foreign investment from Asia, and Taiwan is one of the main target partners, France’s new representative to Taiwan said at an investment seminar Tuesday.

The seminar on investing in France was part of the French government’s initiative to promote foreign investment from 50 target countries and territories, said Benoit Guidee, director of the French Office in Taipei.

These include 10 from the Asia-Pacific region, said the office, which represents France’s interests in Taiwan in the absence of bilateral diplomatic ties.

France has taken several steps to improve its business and investment environment, including streamlining administrative procedures, setting up e-government services and pushing for tax reforms aimed at attracting more investors, said Guidee, who took up his post earlier this month.     [FULL  STORY]

Stabilization fund to continue in Taiwan’s equity market

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-22
By: CNA

Taiwan’s National Financial Stabilization Fund will not be withdrawn from the country’s E921HJ02H_2015資料照片_copy1stock market before the middle of October, the country’s deputy finance minister Wu Tang-chieh, who manages the fund, said Monday.

Wu made the remark as Taiwan shares dropped to below the 8,300-point mark at one point that day amid weak showings in Asian bourses following tumbles on Wall Street and in European markets.

Since the National Financial Stabilization Fund Committee authorized the fund Aug. 25 to buy stocks in order to prop up share prices in Taiwan amid heavy volatility in global markets, the local stock market’s performance has been relatively stable, according to Wu.

The committee will keep close tabs on developments in the global economic situation and the domestic stock market now that the US Federal Reserve decided last week to leave key interest rates unchanged, Wu said.     [FULL  STORY]

New graduates raise jobless rate to 3.9%

SLOWDOWN:The labor market might not improve in the near term, with several firms, such as AUO, announcing job cuts or adopting unpaid leave, the DGBAS said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 23, 2015
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The nation’s unemployment rate climbed to 3.9 percent last month, from 3.82 percent in July, as new graduates continued to increase the jobless population, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

The latest jobless reading suggested a stable labor market — which lags behind major economic indicators by three to six months — DGBAS deputy section chief Chang Yun-yun (張雲澐) said.

That means companies tend to maintain their hiring policy for some time when faced with business volatility, the DGBAS said.

“Reports of business closures and downsizing have yet to affect the job market,” Chang said, attributing the rise in the unemployment rate last month to an influx of new graduates.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan LCD Makers Lay Off in Response to Tightening Economy

Ctimes
By: Korbin Lan

TAIPEI, Taiwan － Recently, the display panel market has been sluggish and has even 1418229590begun to shrink. Two major Taiwanese display panel manufacturers, Innolux and AU Optronics Corporation (AUO), have begun to streamline their workforce. Innolux has laid of 31 people, and AUO has laid off 73 workers.

According to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park Bureau statistics, influenced by the weak economy, the panel and LED industry has recently laid off the highest number of workers in Hsinchu Science Park. Between September 1 and September 18, the six major industries in Hsinchu Science Park cut their work force by a total of 241 employees. Of these, panel and LED companies offered severance or laid off a total of 192 workers which accounted for roughly eighty percent of the downsizing.

An analysis of the Hsinchu Science Park Bureau in September shows that there have been a greater number of layoffs in the optoelectronic industry than in communications. Furthermore, there have been 18 layoffs in the computer peripherals industry and 12 layoffs in the integrated circuit industry. These figures could increase by more than ten times in the near future with the LED epitaxial leader Epistar laying off 102 Hsinchu Science Park employees and AUO cutting 73 jobs.

AUO yesterday stated that it is laying off 73 workers in response to the August closing of the Hsinchu Science Park L3A factory’s optimal product line operations.     [FULL  STORY]

Delta Electronics supplies inverters to Namibia’s solar power plant

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/21
By: Han Ting-ting and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) Delta Electronics, Inc. (台達電), Taiwan’s power management

CNA file photo

CNA file photo

solutions provider, announced on Monday that it has contributed to the largest utility-scale solar power plant in the African country Namibia.

The plant, Omburu Solar Photovoltaic Park, is expected to generate a total of 13,500 megawatt hours of clean and reliable electricity annually, reducing CO2 emission by around 6,750 tons, the company said.

Built northwest of the city of Windhoek, capital of Namibia, on 16 hectares of arid land, the plant uses string inverters supplied by Delta.

String inverters convert the direct current (DC) electricity solar cells produce to alternating current (AC) power that is used by businesses and homes.     [FULL  STORY]

Foxconn’s shift to India a major blow for China

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-21
By: Wang Yang-yu and Staff Reporter

Affected by rising operational costs, some foreign enterprises operating in China are

Foxconn's plant in Zhengzhou, Henan province. Apple's chief contract manufacturer contributes a significant proportion of the province's GDP. (File photo/CNS)

Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou, Henan province. Apple’s chief contract manufacturer contributes a significant proportion of the province’s GDP. (File photo/CNS)

shifting their investment to other countries. Among them, Taiwan-headquartered Foxconn Technology (Hon Hai), the world’s largest contract manufacturer of consumer electronics, is planning to invest 31 billion yuan (US$4.9 billion) in India.

The investment has been described by Chinese media as the biggest move in a “getaway trend” among foreign businesses operating in China, and it has led factories cooperating with Foxconn to rearrange their own deployments.

According to the business news site on Chinese web portal Sohu, Panasonic — which was the first Japanese enterprise to invest in China — began to gradually withdraw from the Chinese market in 2010 and it closed its battery factory in Beijing this year, leaving 1,300 people out of work.

Since the beginning of the year, Japanese retail brands like Uniqlo and Muji have cut down the number of orders placed with Chinese suppliers, shifting them to contractors in Southeast Asian countries and India.     [FULL  STORY]

Export orders fall 8.3% year-on-year

GLOBAL STRUGGLES:The weak figure increases the odds that Taiwan will report a negative growth rate in export orders this year for the first time since 2009

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 22, 2015
By: Lisa Wang  /  Staff reporter

Export orders fell at a higher-than-expected rate of 8.3 percent year-on-year last month on sluggish demand for consumer electronics products primarily in China, which does not bode well for the nation’s economic growth this quarter, statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday showed.

The outlook for this month is bleak as the decline in export orders is expected to accelerate to a double-digit percentage on an annual basis due to a higher base in September last year and uncertainty over demand for Apple Inc’s new iPhone 6S, the ministry said.

“Strong demand for the global brand’s new phone helped lift export orders by US$5 billion in September last year, but it is hard to see such a strong boost in light of the small specification upgrade,” Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) said.     [FULL  STORY]

Output of Taiwan’s semiconductor sector forecast to rise 2% in 2016

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-20
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

The production value of Taiwan’s semiconductor sector is expected to grow only about 2% next year due to continued weak global demand, according to the Market Intelligence Center (MIC).

In a research report released on Sept. 15, the MIC said the output of the domestic integrated circuit industry is expected to increase to NT$2.2 trillion (US$67.5 billion) in 2016, up by an annual 2.2%.

With global demand remaining weak, the prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips are likely to continue to drop, dragging down the production value of that segment and affecting the entire IC industry in Taiwan, the MIC said.

The output of the global IC industry for 2016 is expected to grow 2.2% to US$343.4 billion, the MIC said.     [FULL  STORY]