Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), the local arm of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P), appointed Chang Hwa-ping (張華平) as its president and CEO on Friday, replacing outgoing president Eddy Yang (楊鎮龍), its press statement said yesterday.
“Chang’s appointment reflects S&P’s commitment to further strengthening operations in Taiwan,” the statement said.
Chang, who brings knowledge of the debt markets in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, is expected to help develop the nation’s debt market while better serving local investors, it said.
In the past decade, S&P and Taiwan Ratings have been instrumental in building a strong credit culture in Taiwan, thereby supporting the growth of the country’s robust bond market, Chew Ping (周彬), managing director and head of S&P in Greater China, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Taiwan Ratings, which has rated NT$52.2 billion (US$1.6 billion) of debt issuance this year, expects Chang to help the firm meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of the local market, including securitization, while working closely with S&P to service growing cross-strait investment flow, he added.
Chang was involved in Tokyo’s securitization market in senior positions at various global financial institutions before participating in the introduction of structured products in the domestic market as head of the trust department at the Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工銀). Prior to Taiwan Ratings, Chang was managing director of Hong Kong-based Wachovia Securities (美聯證券) and responsible for the growth and development of Wachovia’s structured finance business in Asia.
With its analytical expertise and local presence, Taiwan Ratings has seen robust growth despite intense competition, said Chang Yu-tsung (張毓宗), executive managing director and head of S&P in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The next phase for Taiwan Ratings is to become part of the increasing integration of the region’s growing financial market activity,” he added.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS