ROSY OUTLOOK:The company has received more orders this quarter on the back of rising labor costs in China and is investing heavily on building new factories

Taipei Times
Date: May 19, 2015
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

Hiwin Technologies Corp (上銀科技), one of the nation’s major machine tool makers, yesterday posted a 3.55 percent annual decline in net profits for the last quarter due to foreign exchange loss, but the company expects growing demand for industrial automation to drive the next quarter’s business.

Hiwin has received more orders this quarter due to surging labor costs in China, company chairman Eric Chuo (卓永財) said.

To meet rising demand, Hiwin plans to expand production capacity, Chuo said.

“This quarter was good, but the next quarter will be even better as our new capacity for ballscrews and linear guideways will be in production,” Chuo said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-17
By: CNA

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has found that Taiwan’s steel nail exporters have not been violating US anti-subsidy rules, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said Saturday.

In a final decision issued Wednesday, the DOC upheld a preliminary ruling that said Taiwanese steel nail firms had been abiding by US anti-subsidy regulations, according to the ministry.

However, in the final ruling, the DOC said Taiwanese steel nail exporters had been selling their products at unfairly low prices in the US market, and it imposed anti-dumping tariffs of up to 2.24% on the companies, the economics ministry added.

In May 2014, the US government began investigating the anti-subsidy matter after US-based Mid Continent Steel & Wire filed a complaint with the DOC and the International Trade Commission (ITC) of the US, seeking anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on imports of steel nails from Taiwan and other countries.     [FULL  STORY]

SLOWDOWN AHEAD:After record first-quarter earnings, analysts said Hon Hai would post slower growth in the second half after losing new iPhone orders to Pegatron

Taipei Times
Date: May 16, 2015
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that its net income surged 55.47 percent year-on-year to NT$30.38 billion (US$992.42 million) last quarter, marking the highest profit for the January-March quarter in the company’s history.

The iPhone assembler’s earnings results beat market expectations of NT$28.36 billion. Earnings per share were NT$2.05 last quarter, compared with NT$1.33 a year earlier, the company said.

However, last quarter’s figure was 46.42 percent lower than the NT$56.71 billion it made in the previous quarter.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/15
By: Han Ting-ting and Ted Chen

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) As drones become more popular and useful in applications ranging from photography to search and rescue, an importer announced Friday that EHANG’s (億航) award-winning Ghost Drone will be available in Taiwan.

The Ghost Drone garnered critical acclaim at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show held January in Las Vegas, besting many other laudable rivals to earn the Top Pick award for drones.

Controlled via a mobile device app, users can pilot the Ghost Drone without any prior experience and can perform takeoffs and landings with a single tap on the screen.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-13
By: Chen Po-ting and Staff Reporter

Taiwanese businesspeople in China can breathe easier after the Chinese government has moved to counter a regulation that could have stopped them getting tax subsidies from local governments, reports our Chinese-language sister paper China Times.

Beijing had previously announced the implementation of the “Notice of the State Council on Reviewing and Regulating Preferential Policies for Taxation and Other Aspects,” also known as No. 62 [2014] of the State Council, which blocks provincial governments from subsidizing enterprises from overseas with taxpayers’ money, subsidies on which many Taiwanese investors in mainland China rely heavily.

But the “Circular of the State Administration of Taxation on How to Deal with Related Issues after Cancellation of Several Previous Tax Preferential Policies on Foreign-invested Enterprises and Foreign Enterprises,” newly announced by the government, could counter the notice.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/13
By: Frances Huang

Taipei, May 13 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan closed above the 9,700 point mark Wednesday as the bellwether electronics sector led the broader market to stage a technical rebound, dealers said.

As investors ignored losses suffered by high-tech stocks on Wall Street overnight, they bought into Taiwanese semiconductor stocks, in particular integrated circuit designer MediaTek Inc. (聯發科), which said a day earlier that smartphone markets in emerging economies have shown signs of stabilizing, the dealers said.

The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange ended up 43.38 points, or 0.44 percent, at 9,724.11, after moving between 9,687.66 and 9,743.33 on turnover of NT$94.61 billion (US$3.08 billion).     [FULL  STORY]