At least 10 more purchase missions from China are expected to visit Taiwan by the end of the year, following earlier visits by four such delegations, which have already agreed to buy billions of US dollars of merchandise, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) chairman Wang Chih-kang (王志剛) said in Beijing yesterday.
Wang said the first delegation organized by China’s Association of Economy and Trade Across the Taiwan Straits (AETATS) arrived in Taiwan in May and had agreed to buy more than US$2 billion in consumer electronics, with US$700 million in orders already received.
A mission composed mainly of Chinese TV makers arrived in June and made plans to purchase US$5 billion in flat panels. Orders for US$1.5 billion of the amount have been received, he said.
Another AETATS-organized delegation composed mostly of Chinese department store representatives that arrived last month plans to buy US$760 million in processed food, with US$160 million in orders already placed, Wang said.
On Aug. 19, another AETATS-organized delegation is expected to purchase up to US$1.2 billion in goods, he said.
Wang made the remarks in a news conference held in Beijing to promote the Taiwan Trade Fair in Nanjing, which is scheduled for Sept. 17 through Sept. 20 at the Nanjing International Expo Center.
The show will gather 620 Taiwanese businesses and display more than 30,000 Taiwanese products, with the exhibition area to cover 38,000m², TAITRA said.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated