TELECOMS
FIH India workers arrested
Nearly 200 employees at a factory operated by FIH Mobile Ltd (富智康), a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), were arrested on Monday for trying to force their way into the plant in Sriperumbudur Taluk, India, after production was suspended last week. It was the second attempt at a forced entry into the facility after a similar attempt by hundreds of employees on Tuesday last week, according to the Press Trust of India. Three rounds of tripartite talks were held in the presence of Sriperumbudur’s labor commissioner, but they had yet to reach any conclusions, the report said. A fourth round of talks was scheduled to take place today.
INVESTMENT
Delegation to visit India
Taiwan will send a delegation composed of officials from the ministries of economic and foreign affairs and business representatives to an investment summit in India next month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. “The business representatives on the delegation are mainly from the electronics, shipbuilding and textile industries,” Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Elliott Charng (常以立) said at a news conference. The delegation is scheduled to visit India from Jan. 10 to Jan. 14, and the investment summit is to be held from Jan. 11 to Jan. 13 in the state of Gujarat, Charng said.
FOUNDATIONS
Chang Gung names chair
Chang Gung Medical Foundation (長庚醫療) yesterday appointed Lee Pao-chu (李寶珠), the third wife of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) cofounder Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), as chairperson, replacing Wang Yung-tsai (王永在), the foundation said in a statement. Known for its operation of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, the foundation is one of the group’s nonprofit organizations as well as its investment arm. Wang Yung-tsai, another cofounder of the group and a younger brother of the late Wang Yung-ching, passed away on Nov. 27.
TRAVEL
Richmond plans listing
Richmond International Travel & Tour Co (山富旅遊) yesterday said the company is seeking to list on the Emerging Stock Market, which is a preparatory board for the nation’s two main bourses, the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the GRETAI Securities Market. The company said in a statement that its board had authorized chairman Chico Chen (陳國森) to negotiate terms with potential underwriters and proceed with the planned market debut with the stock exchange regulator. No specific date has been set for the debut.
HOUSEWARES
Xiaomi working on purifier
Xiaomi Corp (小米) is working on a water purifier as it expands its range of home products that can be controlled over the Internet, an early investor in the company said. The company has shown some backers a prototype of the new purifier, said Jenny Lee, managing partner at GGV Capital, an early investor in China’s largest smartphone vendor. Xiaomi spokeswoman Joy Han declined to comment on products that have not been announced. Xiaomi founder and chief executive officer Lei Jun (雷軍) said on Monday that the company would unveil a new “flagship product” next month, without supplying further details. GGV’s Lee did not say if the water purifier would be that product.
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
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