■ MPAA supports indictment
The Motion Picture Association (MPAA) in the US applauded the criminal indictment against Taiwan peer-to-peer operator ezPeer by the public prosecutor's office in Taipei, the association said in a statement yesterday. EzPeer, which provides unauthorized versions of copyrighted works for Internet downloading on a subscription-basis service, was indicted by prosecutors for violating the Copyright Law (著作權法) on March 11, MPAA said in the statement. "We solidly support the criminal indictment by the Prosecutor's Office against ezPeer ... They have reaped the financial rewards without paying a single penny to the copyright owners and now they must face the legal consequences of their actions," said Mike Ellis, senior vice president and regional director for the MPAA's Asia-Pacific Operations. The MPAA's Taiwan office filed a criminal complaint charging that ezPeer was knowingly engaged in infringing copyrights for profit.
■ WTO entry hurts alcohol sales
Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司) chairman Morgan Hwang (黃營杉) told lawmakers yesterday at the Legislative Yuan that the company's market share had been decreasing significantly since Taiwan joined the WTO on Jan. 1, 2002. The company had been facing stiff competition from overseas tobacco and wine companies, particularly those from China, Hwang said. He pointed out that the company's rice wine market share had declined to 8 percent of the nation's total sales of white liquor, and that the counterfeit "Long Life" brand cigarettes from China already held a 10-percent share of the market in Taiwan. Therefore, Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor would complete a plan this month that includes a timetable for carrying out its privatization, which was needed to increase competitiveness and make inroads into the Chinese market, Hwang said.
■ Reserves rise to record high
The nation's foreign-exchange reserves, the third-highest in the world, rose to a record US$226.52 billion at the end of last month, up US$1.72 billion from the previous month, the nation's central bank said yesterday. Factors that helped boost the reserves included an increase in foreign capital flowing to the nation and dividends generated from the reserves, the bank said in a statement. The Central Bank of China said Taiwan's foreign reserves, which rank behind those of Japan and China, represent an increase of US$19.891 billion from the end of last year.
■ Foreign investment rises
From the start of this year until last Friday, foreign investors traded in the bourse with a net buy of NT$102.1 billion (US$3.05 billion) recorded, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp. Foreign investors purchased NT$1.46 trillion in Taiwan stocks, and sold NT$943.4 billion in stocks between the first trading day of this year and last Friday, resulting in a net buy of NT$102.1 billion. Based on government figures, the total value of Taiwan stocks held by foreign investors stood at NT$3.16 trillion, accounting for almost 22 percent of the overall value of the domestic bourse, an increase of NT$119 billion from the level recorded on March 26.
■ NT dollar down slightly
The NT dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.020 to close at NT$32.949 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$580 million.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
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