An industry advocacy group yesterday urged incoming minister of economics Lee Chih-kung (李世光) to improve Taiwan’s investment environment and ensure the stability of the nation’s electricity supply, with the Democratic Progressive Party administration having pledged to phase out nuclear power by 2025.
“The top priority for the new minister of economics should be to raise investors’ confidence about Taiwan’s investment environment,” Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI, 全國工業總會) secretary-general Tsai Lien-sheng (蔡練生) said by telephone.
Taiwan’s investment environment is deteriorating, as the possibility of water, power, and land shortages are weighing on investments, Tsai said, adding that a lack of talented workers is also making investors hesitate.
Tsai said that a stable electricity supply is very important to the development of the nation’s industries, and that the business community is worried that if the new government abandons nuclear power by 2025, electricity supplies will not be sufficient to support the nation’s economic activity.
Ensuring that power supplies remain stable is the key to a better investment environment, he added.
General Chamber of Commerce (全國商業總會) chairman Lai Cheng-i (賴正鎰) shared a similar view with Tsai, saying that Lee should draft feasible and detailed plans to boost investments in the nation.
“How to attract more investment to the nation should be at the top of Lee’s list after he takes office, as investments from overseas shrunk more than 15 percent last year from 2014,” Lai said by telephone, citing Investment Commission data.
Foreign investments from all sources plunged 16.87 percent annually to US$4.79 billion last year, with investment from China plummeting 27.06 percent to US$244.06 million, according to Investment Commission data.
The incoming minister of economics should also encourage Taiwanese businessmen and enterprises to invest more domestically, Lai said, adding that increased investment in Taiwan could boost the nation’s employment rate and raise wage levels.
The incoming minister of economics should also carry on the government’s push to ink free-trade agreements so that tariff barriers for Taiwanese manufacturers can be lowered, Lai said.
“I hope that the incoming minister can make progress on the trade in goods pact with China and the cross-strait service trade agreement. The business community also expects the government to help Taiwan join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Lai said.
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,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
RSS