■ECONOMY
Star industry list to expand
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) will expand the government’s list of new star industries to include the patterned innovation, green building, information and communications technology (ICT) and smart electric car sectors. Wu’s predecessor, Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), had already designated specialty agriculture, green energy, healthcare, tourism, cultural innovation and biotechnology as industries with outstanding potential. The four new sectors will be added to the list, Wu said on Friday as he attended the closing ceremony of a training course for local leaders sponsored by the southern branch of the Executive Yuan in Kaohsiung.
■DUBAI DEBT
Japan firms owed US$7.5bn
Japan’s non-financial firms had about US$7.5 billion in uncollected bills from the Dubai government and its affiliated firms as of the end of October, the Nikkei business daily reported yesterday. The data, excluding bank loans, were derived from a total of 18 projects worth about US$15 billion and involving Japanese general contractors, trading houses and electric machinery manufacturers, the daily said. The figures include public works projects commissioned by the Dubai government, it added.
■AUTOMAKERS
VW targets India growth
Volkswagen AG (VW), Europe’s biggest carmaker, said it aims to capture as much as 10 percent of India’s car market in four to six years as it boosts sales in emerging markets. The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company will sell cars under three brands, including Skoda and Audi AG, to achieve its targets, VW said in a statement in Chakan near Pune in western India. Production of its Polo compact car began yesterday at the plant, which opened earlier this year.
■CONSUMER GOODS
P&G buys Ambi Pur
Procter & Gamble Co (P&G), the world’s largest consumer-goods company, agreed to buy Sara Lee Corp’s Ambi Pur brand for about 320 million euros (US$468 million) to boost air-freshener sales outside the US. Ambi Pur will help Procter & Gamble expand in Europe, Australia, Africa and some countries in Asia. The sale is expected to close in the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30 next year.
■ECONOMY
OECD points to recovery
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said its leading economic indicator for member countries improved in October, led by increases in Germany, the UK and Russia. The indicator increased by 1 point from September to 101.4, the Paris-based organization said in a statement on Friday. That is 5.7 points higher than in October last year and the highest reading since April last year. The indicator “continues to point to a recovery,” the OECD said in a statement.
■INVESTMENT
Citigroup sued over EMI deal
Citigroup Inc was sued over the 2007 acquisition of EMI Group Ltd by private-equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd, which said the bank misrepresented that another firm was bidding on the record company. Terra Firma sued to recover “lost equity of billions of dollars” and obtain punitive damages from Citigroup, which stood to garner substantial fees from the deal as investment adviser and lender to EMI and sole financier to the private-equity company, according to a complaint filed on Friday in the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.
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
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
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
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
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