Raytheon Co, the world's largest missile maker, said it's seeking partners among Taiwan companies and plans to set up a maintenance-repair center on the island.
"Over the past four decades, we just sold products to Taiwan, but have yet to establish partnership here," Torkel Patterson, president of Raytheon International, Inc, said yesterday in Taipei, where the company is holding an exhibition.
Raytheon is among 18 overseas and 56 local exhibitors participating Aug. 11-14 at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition.
PHOTO: AP
The company, which is based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is cooperating with Taiwan's government-backed Institute for Information Industry to jointly develop air traffic control systems, said Patterson, who didn't elaborate.
The Cabinet is proposing a budget of NT$480 billion (US$15 billion) for the next 15 years to buy submarines, anti-missile equipment and anti-submarine aircraft. The proposal, scaled back by 21 percent from a larger plan, is pending in Legislative Yuan after lawmakers balked at the original request.
"We hope to grab some of the orders," Patterson said, without elaborating.
Taiwan said it needs to increase defense spending because of rising tensions and military threats from China, which has 706 missiles aimed at Taiwan and is adding 120 more each year.
Excluding arms purchases, Taiwan has budgeted about NT$267 million for defense spending this year, or about 17 percent of the total.
The nation's annual defense budget last year accounted for 2.8 percent of gross domestic product, less than South Korea's 3 percent, the US's 4 percent, Singapore's 4.3 percent and Israel's 8 percent, the presidential office said in 2004.
Raytheon doesn't have a timetable for its Taiwan maintenance-repair center, Communication Manager Paul Stefens said. The company on June 23 received a US Air Force contract valued at US$752 million to provide Taiwan with an early-warning radar system.
The system will enable the Taiwan Air Force to detect and track ballistic and cruise missiles as well as aircraft and ships.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS