The Ministry of Economic Affairs and 20 overseas Taiwanese firms yesterday inked letters of intent to invest NT$37.8 billion (US$1.29 billion) in Taiwan, injecting some fresh momentum to the nation’s meager private investment amid global economic woes.
The figure represented an increase of 19 percent, from the NT$31.8 billion the ministry solicited last year under the same program targeting overseas Taiwanese entrepreneurs, mostly from China, to boost private investment.
“As the external economic situation is not good, we have to look for growth in the domestic market,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (粱國新) said during a forum arranged by the government to boost investment in Taiwan.
Fixed investment from the private sector is expected to shrink 1.03 percent this year from last year as LCD companies and memory chipmakers scale back equipment investment amid falling orders, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics forecast last month.
The newly promised investments came primarily from traditional sectors such as machinery tools, biotech, tourism and retail, while expansion in the technology sector, a pillar of Taiwan’s economy, stagnates.
Jinn Her Enterprise Co Ltd (晉禾企業), the world’s biggest manufacturer of screws and bolts, plans to spend NT$10 billion on building a logistics warehouse in Greater Kaohsiung, making it the biggest investor among the 20 firms that promised to divert their investment back home.
“We have been scouting around for a place to build our [fourth] logistics warehouse over the past several years,” company chairman Tsai Yung-yu (蔡永裕) told a joint media briefing yesterday. “We chose [to build a warehouse in] Taiwan because it is our home country and we hope to contribute to improving the country’s unemployment rate.”
The planned logistics warehouse would create 100,000 jobs in the screw-and-bolt supply chain in a new industrial center, initiated by Jinn Her, in Greater Kaohsiung, Tsai said.
He said the construction of the logistics warehouse would be completed within a year after obtaining government approval.
Jinn Her, which trades its A shares on the Shenzhen stock market, makes screws and bolts mostly in Chinese factories.
It is also worth noticing that Sino Horizon Holdings Ltd (鼎固控股), a Shanghai-based property development company, plans to invest at least NT$300 million in building shopping malls and restaurants in Taiwan.
Sino Horizon is owned by Jason Chang (張虔生) and his family, which also operates the world's top chip packager Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體). Sino Horizon is expected to list on local stock market by the end of this year.
Tailife Co Ltd (台勵福), which makes forklift trucks, marked another example. Tailife said it planned to spend at least NT$1 billion to build production lines to make motors and other key components used in forklift trucks.
After making home appliances in China for more than two decades, home appliances maker Airmate Electrical (Shenzhen) Co Ltd (艾美特電器深圳) plans to launch an initial offering in the local stock market later this year and to expand its research and development center in Taiwan, company vice chairman Tsai Cheng-fu (蔡正富) said, citing the excellent talent pool here.
Airmate also plans to expand its own-brand home appliances business in Taiwan, Tsai said. Airmate makes home appliances and motors for local household brands such as Tatung Co (大同), Sampo Corp (聲寶) and TECO Electric and Machinery Co (東元電機), but sells Airmate home appliances in China.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
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