The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday approved Materials Analysis Technology Inc’s (MA-tek, 閎康科技) application to invest NT$2.2 billion (US$73.44 million) in Taiwan.
The nation’s leading materials analysis lab plans to purchase advanced processing analytical equipment for its five plants in Hsinchu and Tainan, the ministry said.
MA-tek, which also provides structure, surface and failure analysis services, has clients across high-tech industries in Taiwan and overseas, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and major players in the smartphone market.
The company reported record-high revenue of NT$2.54 billion last year, a 22.12 percent annual increase.
The ministry yesterday also approved investment applications by other companies, including automation components maker GMT Global Inc (高明鐵企業) and Aviocast Inc (天陽航太).
GMT, whose customers include Apple Inc, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為), Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀), plans to invest NT$800 million to expand its production capacity in Taiwan and avoid US tariffs imposed on China-made products such as linear cylinder and crossed roller stages, the ministry said.
The company intends to purchase automated equipment for its manufacturing facilities in Changhua County.
Aviocast plans to invest NT$500 million to upgrade its plant in the Taichung Industrial Park (台中工業區) and accelerate its product development process by introducing automated equipment and detection systems.
It provides aluminum casting foundry services mainly to the aerospace industry and supplies international companies, including Honeywell International Inc, General Electric Co and Safran SA, the ministry said.
Since early last year, the ministry has approved investment applications from 339 companies, who have pledged to invest NT$864.1 billion in the nation, creating 71,476 job opportunities.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last