■ Government spending in control
The government has succeeded in controlling its annual expenditure at a level of around NT$1.6 trillion (US$50.3 billion) in recent years, saving an average of NT$70 billion in government spending annually, a senior budgetary official said yesterday. Speaking at a weekly Cabinet meeting, Hsu Jan-yau (許璋瑤), head of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), said the achievement has been reflected in Taiwan's ranking in the World Economic Forum (WEF) global rating on government expenditure control. Taiwan ranked 13th in last year's WEF global rating in terms of government expenditure control, moving up seven notches from the previous WEF rating. According to Hsu, the government began to adopt a package of measures in 2001 to improve budgetary efficiency by controlling government expenditure and cutting wasteful spending. Through concerted efforts of all government agencies, Hsu said the ratio of government expenditure to the nation's GDP declined from 17.3 percent in 2001 to 15.2 percent last year.
■ SDK to up hard disk production
A Japanese technology giant plans to increase production of hard disk media across its three plants in Singapore, Taiwan and Chiba, Japan, a Showa Denko KK (SDK) spokesman said in a published report yesterday. SDK, one of the world's largest manufacturers of disks for hard drives, is injecting S$183 million (US$111 million) to expand capacity, Yoshiyuki Kusanagi told the Straits Times. He declined to disclose how much of the investment will be allocated at each facility but said the expansion of capacity in Singapore will be completed by March next year. SDK intends to increase production of hard disk media by a total of 3.05 million disks a month across the three plants, Kusanagi said.
■ Lenovo, Elitegroup may ally
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), China's largest personal computer maker, may forge an alliance with Taiwanese motherboard maker Elitegroup Computer Systems Co (精英電腦) to explore the server motherboard market, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information. The report said Lenovo may transfer its design technology to Elitegroup and help the latter establish motherboard production lines for servers. Elitegroup would also help market the server boards through its distribution channels, the paper added.
■ Siemens workers protest
Siemens AG workers in China are protesting against the German engineering company's plans to cut staff at the local mobile-phone unit, WirtschaftsWoche reported, without saying where it obtained the information. The workers are protesting against the Munich-based engineering company's plan to cut more than 100 of the 2,000 Chinese jobs in marketing and sales operations of the handset business, the magazine said. Workers staged protests outside Siemens's Chinese headquarters in Beijing, the magazine said. BenQ Corp (明基) plans to take over Siemens's unprofitable handset business later this year.
■ NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar dropped for the first day in three as the Japanese yen's 0.6 percent slide today raised concerns that the nation's central bank will sell its currency to maintain the competitiveness of its exporters. The NT dollar dropped NT$0.086 to close at NT$31.979 against the US dollar on the Taipei foreign exchange market, on turnover of US$735 million.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
Protectionism: US trade chief Katherine Tai said the hikes would help to counter unfair trade practices from China, while boosting domestic clean energy investments US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) defended stiff tariff hikes against countries such as China, saying that paired with investment, they were a “legitimate and constructive” tool for reinvigorating domestic industries. Tai’s comments come a week after sharp tariff increases on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), EV batteries and solar cells took effect — with levies down the line on other products also recently finalized. The latest moves targeting US$18 billion in Chinese goods come weeks before next month’s US presidential election, with Democrats and Republicans pushing a hard line on China as competition between Washington and Beijing intensifies. In an interview on Thursday
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