Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-05
By: Staff Reporter

Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known by its trading name Foxconn,

the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, plans to replace 30% of the workforce at its factories in China with industrial robots by 2020, reports Tencent’s tech news web portal.

Foxconn has been developing its own Foxbot robots since 2007 and its plants in Shenzhen and Jincheng, which have around 1,600 employees, produce 10,000 Foxbots every year. The robots are able to carry out more than 20 kinds of manufacturing tasks including pressing, printing, polishing, packaging, testing and more. The company has developed over 50,000 workable industrial robots and thousands of items of automated equipment.

The robots are likely to replace workers in what is called “3D” working environments — that is, dirty, dangerous and dull, said Day Chia-peng, president of Foxconn’s automation technology development committee.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/04
By: Long Pei-ning and Frances Huang

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) Concerns are running deeper over where funding will come from for those in need of long-term care, despite the passing of the Legislative Yuan’s much-awaited long-term care service bill in May, a social welfare alliance said Saturday.

The Universal Care Policy Alliance (UCPA, 普及照顧政策聯盟) said that even though Taiwan now has the long-term care service act in place, the government’s financial resources are limited, so people in need are still unlikely to receive sufficient and necessary assistance.

The UCPA is organized by several sub-social welfare groups, such as the Federation for the Welfare and the Elderly (老人福利推動聯盟), the Taiwan Women’s Link (台灣女人連線), and the Awakening Foundation (婦女新知基金會).     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/04
By: Wei Shu and Frances Huang

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) Sinyi Realty Inc. (信義房屋), one of Taiwan’s leading property sales agencies, said Saturday that the weakness of the Japanese yen has not only lured Taiwanese travelers but also potential home buyers here who are eager to take advantage of foreign exchange gains.

Ho Wei-hung (何偉宏), head of Sinyi Realty’s subsidiary in Japan, said that many Taiwanese who were taking a trip to Tokyo were seeking property investment instruments in the city in light of the yen’s recent plunge against the greenback.

With the Bank of Japan, the Japanese central bank, kicking off a U.S. Federal Reserve-style quantitative easing, the yen has been trending lower against the currencies of its major trading partners.

Since the beginning of 2014, the Japanese currency has dropped more than 17 percent against the U.S. dollar, and many Taiwanese consumers have found that not only travel to Japan but also a wide range of products, including property items, have become more affordable.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/03
By: Ying Chun-chieh and Frances Huang

Shanghai, July 3 (CNA) Bank of Taiwan (台銀), the largest lender in Taiwan, opened a sub-branch of the bank’s Shanghai branch in the city’s Jiading District Friday to extend the reach of its Chinese yuan-denominated services in the Yangtze River Delta.

In the opening ceremony for the new outlet, Bank of Taiwan Chairwoman Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠) said the new outlet would focus on serving the growing cluster of Taiwanese investors operating in the greater Shanghai area as well as local clients.

She said the Jiading sub-branch has obtained the green light from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC)’s Shanghai bureau to provide the same yuan-denominated services to Chinese and foreign customers as does its Shanghai branch.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/03
By: Frances Huang

Taipei, July 3 (CNA) Taiwan shares dropped sharply in Friday’s mid-morning session, led by large-cap stocks across the board amid lingering concerns over the debt problems in Greece, as that country prepares to hold a referendum on its creditors’ proposals, dealers said.

The current selling also reflected fears that the Shanghai stock exchange will continue to trend lower after a recent sell-off, which could create more volatility in the regional markets, including Taiwan, dealers said.

As of 10:50 a.m., the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange had lost 89.92 points or 0.96 percent, dropping to 9,289.93 points on turnover of NT$43.37 billion (US$1.40 billion). The local index fell more than 100 points before recovering to some extent, but still came under pressure.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-03
By: CNA

Shipments of projectors in Taiwan dropped by an annual 11.4% in the first quarter due

to delays in supply contracts to schools, according to data compiled by research group International Data Corp. (IDC).

The 19,926 projectors shipped in the January-March period also represented a decline of 9% from the fourth quarter.

The slide during the first quarter, which traditionally is a slow season for electronic goods, was aggravated by two key factors, IDC said in a research report on Tuesday.

Education sector demand was weaker than normal because of delays in issuing supply contracts, and there were fewer business days in the quarter because of the Lunar New Year holiday, IDC said.     [FULL  STORY]