■REAL ESTATE
Cathay buys Neihu building
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), Taiwan’s biggest life insurer, bought a building in Neihu Technology Park (內湖科技園區) for NT$3 billion (US$96 million), its second property investment in Taipei this year. Cathay Life paid NT$410,000 per ping (3.3m²) for the headquarters of Gala Television Corp (八大電視), the Taipei-based insurer said in a stock exchange filing through parent Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the country’s biggest financial services company by market value, yesterday. The value per ping was a record for Neihu District, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday. Cathay Life won a tender for 2,629m² of land in downtown Taipei with a NT$2.39 billion bid last month.
■BANKING
Taishin sues Chiu Yi
Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), whose shareholders include billionaire George Soros, has filed civil and criminal charges against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) for alleging its 2005 bid for Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) was illegal. Complaints of libel and obstruction of credit were filed on Friday with the Taipei District Court, Taishin said in a stock exchange filing after market closed on Friday. The company denies all allegations made by Chiu, it said in the statement. Taishin is seeking a public apology from Chiu, the Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing Lin Keh-hsiao (林克孝), president of the Taipei-based financial company.
■INVESTMENT
Park draws NT$1.8bn
Total investment in the Kaohsiung Software Technology Park (高雄軟體科技園區) as of this month reached nearly NT$1.8 billion (US$57.19 million), the Export Processing Zone Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. A spokesman for the administration said the investment came from 56 approved investors who have decided to set up shop in the software park, and that the amount represented a substantial increase from the NT$12.2 billion recorded in June. Of the accumulated total of NT$1.8 million, NT$713 million was invested in the first eight months of this year by 23 companies, the spokesman said.
■SPONSORSHIP
NBA inks deal with Tsingtao
The National Basketball Association signed a multiyear sponsorship agreement with Tsingtao Brewery Co (青島啤酒) in which China’s largest brewer will fund sports and dance competitions related to the league in the world’s most populous nation. Tsingtao, China’s biggest beer company by sales, will sponsor a nationwide search for an NBA China Dance Team, help finance basketball tours in the country and assist in an All-Star Game balloting system, the NBA said in a statement yesterday. Terms weren’t disclosed.
■AVIATION
Boeing may not rebid
US aerospace giant Boeing said on Friday it may exit the rebidding for a US$35 billion contract to build US Air Force aerial refueling tankers unless allowed more time to rework its proposal. The Department of Defense was forced in June to rebid the contract after congressional auditors found flaws in the air force’s decision to award it to Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), parent of Airbus. The Pentagon contract is for 179 aircraft, the initial phase of a fleet replacement project worth some US$100 billion over the next 30 years.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
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