Many Chinese provinces have extended new year holiday to contain spread of disease

The Irish Times
Date: January 30, 2020

The coronavirus is wreaking havoc within the global technology supply chain, as many Chinese provinces extend the new year holiday in an effort to contain the spread of the disease.

Underlining the concerns for the tech industry, Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, which is also known as Foxconn and makes the majority of the world’s iPhones, suffered its biggest share price fall in almost 20 years on Thursday.

Elsewhere, shares of Japanese electronics parts makers and other tech groups with exposure to China were hit hard, with Murata Manufacturing, Tokyo Electron and Sharp all suffering dips of more than 3 per cent as a result of anxieties about disruption to supply chains.

The wobbles came after the governments of six Chinese provinces, including manufacturing hubs crucial for the global technology industry such as Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Chongqing, mandated that the return to work after the Lunar new year be delayed by a week to February 10th for all but essential industries.    [FULL  STORY]

Gaming industry shares profit from the outbreak

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/30
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei’s stock market index recorded its steepest one-day fall Thursday (Jan. 30), losing almost 700 points, or 5.75 percent, to close at 11,421.74 points as investor confidence was shaken by the spread of the coronavirus.

While Taiwan has confirmed eight cases of the virus (2019-nCoV) by Thursday, the official number in neighboring China has reached more than 7,700, including at least 170 deaths.

At its lowest point Thursday, the Taiex fell 700 points to 11,418.22, but it recovered slightly in the final minutes of the trading day, closing with a total drop of 696.97 points, CNA reported.

The electronics sector did even worse than the stock market average, losing 5.99 percent, as many of Taiwan’s world-class electronics manufacturers have production units in China which are being affected by the virus outbreak there. Several companies have asked their staff to work from home and not to return to China from Taiwan now that the Lunar New Year holiday has ended.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/30/2020
By: Chung Jung-feng, Jackson Chang, Jeffrey Wu and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Jan. 30 (CNA) Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world's largest contract electronics maker, is among several Taiwanese businesses that have had to postpone the reopening of their factories in China after the Lunar New Year holiday due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, has told the employees at its factories in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the coronavirus, that work will not resume until Feb. 14, in accordance with an order issued by the Hubei Province government.

Meanwhile, Hon Hai said, its plants in other Chinese provinces will remain closed until Feb. 10 in keeping with government guidelines.

The company has advised its employees in China to stay at home and those in Taiwan, who came back from Wuhan for the Lunar New Year holiday, to remain in self-quarantine.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 01/29/2020
By: Yeh Su-ping and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, Jan. 29 (CNA) The fundamentals of Taiwan's stock market remain strong, despite fears surrounding the spread of a new form of coronavirus that have sent international markets tumbling in recent days, Deputy Finance Minister Juan Ching-hua (阮清華) said Wednesday.

In an interview, Jung, who also serves as Executive Secretary of the National Stabilization Fund, said the ministry will keep a close watch when the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) reopens Thursday for the first day of trading since Jan. 20.

Although the TWSE is a "thin market," and subject to short-term, news-driven fluctuations, investors should have confidence that "Taiwan's fundamentals are quite strong," Jung said.

According to Jung, both government and private observers have issued positive economic growth forecasts, citing factors including the repatriation of assets, growth in direct investments from abroad and beneficial supply chain shifts.    [FULL  STORY]

The outbreak of novel coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV) is taking toll on China’s economy, and the impact can be felt at box offices across the country

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/28
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The outbreak of novel coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV) is taking a toll on China’s economy, and the impact can be felt at box offices across the country, which only saw revenues of 1.81 million renminbi (US$260,000) on Lunar New Year’s Day, less than 1 percent of the 1.458 billion renminbi (US$215,000,000) earned on the same day last year, according to a newtalk.tw report on Tuesday (Jan. 28).

The Taiwanese news outlet cited Mtime, an online Chinese movie and TV show database, to report that many cinemas in Guangdong, Shanghai, and Wuhan have suspended their operations, and that seven of the movies slated to be shown over the Lunar New Year holiday have been pulled.
[FULL  STORY]

VIRUS:PSA,  which runs a plant with Dongfeng Motor in Wuhan, plans to evacuate employees, quarantine them in another Chinese city and then bring them back to France

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 27, 2020
By: AP, PARIS

France and a major automaker said on Saturday that they are moving to get citizens out of a locked-

down Chinese city where a deadly outbreak of a new virus originated and has spread worldwide.

French automaker PSA Group says it will evacuate its employees and their families from Wuhan in central China, quarantine them in another major Chinese city and then bring them back to France.

The Foreign Ministry said French officials were studying “eventual options” for all its nationals to leave if they wish.

It comes a day after France announced that three cases of the new virus are being treated in two French hospitals — the first confirmed in Europe. All the patients are Chinese who had recently returned from China and are doing well, officials said.

PSA Group did not say how many employees would be part of an evacuation.

In a series of tweets, the automaker said transportation, housing and other organizational considerations are being worked out. PSA, which sells its Peugeot and Citroen cars in China, has a joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Corp (DFM, 東風汽車) in Wuhan.    [FULL  STORY]

Vacancy rate for premium grade office space in capital dropped to 3.2 percent in 4th quarter of 2019

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/01/24
By:  Central News Agency

As a result of limited supply and a fall in vacancy rates, the cost of renting offices in Taipei is expected to grow for the next three years, according to multinational property market advisory firm Collier.

In 2019, average office rent in Taipei, the most closely watched property market in Taiwan, rose 2.05 percent from a year earlier to around NT$1,906 (US$63.53) per ping per month (one ping equals 3.3 square meters) as the vacancy rate fell, data compiled by Collier showed.

Market analysts said the increased rent for office space is an indication of rising demand at a time when a greater number of Taiwanese investors with operations overseas, in particular in China, are investing more at home to avoid the impact of additional tariffs imposed by the United States on goods made in China.

The data indicates that rent of premium offices in Taipei rose 5.10 percent this year, with Xinyi District, the most prominent business district in the capital seeing rent of top-grade office space rise 5.53 percent, the highest growth in Taipei. The average rent for office space in Xinyi District stood at NT$2,405 per ping per month, about 17-35 percent higher than in other business districts in Taipei, Collier said.    [FULL  STORY]