Taiwan’s private investments grew at a slower-than-expected annual pace of 2.82 percent last year, due to volatility in the global economy and falling prices of crude oil products, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The growth was a significant retreat from 2014’s 6.65 percent annual increase, the ministry said.
It was also the first time in the past 10 years that private investments failed to reach the government’s annual goal, with total investments of NT$1.34 trillion (US$39.73 billion) — nearly NT$60 billion short of the target of NT$1.4 trillion — ministry data showed.
“Less investment from the petrochemical industry because of the sharp decline in oil prices last year is the main reason that private investments did not reach the annual goal,” Industrial Development Bureau Deputy Director-General Hsiao Chen-jong (蕭振榮) said at a news conference following the ministry’s meeting on the nation’s private and foreign investments.
Private investments in Taiwan’s petrochemical industry last year totaled NT$275.8 billion, an 11.3 percent plunge from 2014’s NT$310 billion, the data showed.
Investments in the sector fell NT$46.2 billion short of the government’s annual goal for the sector of NT$322 billion, Hsiao said.
In terms of companies, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) invested the most among the nation’s listed companies, with investments of NT$180 billion, Hsiao said.
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the nation’s No. 2 contract chipmaker, invested NT$49.7 billion domestically, he said.
Both TSMC and UMC mainly spent their investments on purchasing equipment and investing in new technologies to maintain their competitiveness in the global market, Hsiao said.
Panel maker AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) invested NT$40 billion, with the majority of the investment going into expanding its production capacity of 8.5G and 6G low-temperature polycrystalline silicon technology, Hsiao said.
Innolux Corp (群創) invested most of its NT$35 billion in the research and development into panel technology, he said.
As the outlook for the global economy is gloomy, the ministry decided to set a conservative goal of NT$1.4 trillion in private investments for this year, Hsiao said.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
RSS