Exchange reserves fall
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell at the end of last month on foreign capital flight, the central bank said yesterday.
The forex reserves at the end of last month were down US$8.81 billion from a month earlier at US$282.09, the central bank said.
Last month, foreign investors moved their gains from stock and bond markets out of the country, it said.
Canon to expand in Taichung
Japan’s Canon Inc said yesterday it planned to expand a factory in Taichung to produce lenses for high-end digital cameras as the market grows across the world.
Canon said it would invest ¥2 billion (US$18.8 million) to expand the site and create 600 jobs, bringing the total work force at the facility to 3,000.
“The continued growth of the global digital single-lens reflex market has led to a rapidly increasing demand for interchangeable lenses,” it said in a statement.
Construction is planned to begin this month with production to start in July.
Messenger goes traditional
Windows Live Messenger 9.0 will be available for download at the end of this month. This software will be Microsoft Taiwan’s first instant messenger software to use traditional Chinese characters. It has been almost a year since the company’s 8.0 version release.
Microsoft Taiwan’s live messenger software has over 8 million users nationwide, with 70 percent of its users in the 25 to 35 age range, the Chinese-language China Times reported yesterday.
The next generation MSN messenger will focus on social networking and allow registered users to share their favorite social Web sites instantly with anyone on their contact list.
Skype offers counseling
PCHome Online Inc (網路家庭) and Skype Technologies SA’s co-branded Skype software is offering psychiatric counseling services via the Internet, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday, citing the alliance.
Local callers can reach psychologists from the Taiwan Institute of Psychotherapy and receive 20 minutes of free counseling service, the report said.
Internet telephone offers a new medical solution platform for Taiwanese patients, providing privacy as well as professional interaction via voice and image data transfer anonymously.
HTC sales reach NT$12.7bn
High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電), the global maker of Windows mobile phones, said yesterday its sales came in at NT$12.7 billion (US$397.3 million) last month, a growth of 33.6 percent from the NT$9.51 billion reported for the same period last year.
The Taoyuan-based company reiterated its third quarter objective of NT$38 billion in sales. Accumulated revenue for the first eight months reached NT$91.5 billion, which was an increase of 32.53 percent from a year ago.
NT dollar continues to fall
The New Taiwan dollar fell to the lowest level in almost seven months as global funds sold local stocks on concern growth is slowing.
“There’ll be a lot of funds coming out of the equity market and giving pressure to the Taiwan dollar, so this thing is going to continue for a while,” said Daniel Soh, an economist at Forecast Pte in Singapore. “Investors will exit first and see how it goes because of rising concerns about falling growth in China, while hopes of a domestic revival may be dashed for now.”
The local currency declined 0.4 percent to close at NT$31.875 against the US dollar in Taipei. It earlier fell as much as 0.5 percent to NT$31.908, the weakest since Feb. 13. It dropped 1.1 percent this week.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
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