■FINANCE
D&B responds to report
More than 90 percent of companies in Taiwan have low financial risk, an executive of the Taiwan branch of the world’s largest business information provider, Dun & Bradstreet Corp (D&B), said on Friday. The statement came one day after D&B International Ltd Taiwan was quoted by the Chinese-language Economic Daily News as saying that more than 20 publicly listed companies were in dire financial straits. Alexander Lo (羅立基), general manager of the Taiwan branch, said the US-based company had not provided any such data. Lo said the D&B Paydex report cited in the news story was simply one of the factors used to evaluate a company’s financial risk. A D&B statement also explained that 92 percent of the 94,926 Taiwanese companies in its database were at the lowest level of financial risk.
■ENERGY
Electricity bills down
More than 4.7 million households and public schools around the country benefited from pricing incentives to conserve energy, collectively saving NT$1.74 billion (US$54.17 million) on their electricity bills for July and last month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. The Bureau of Energy said in a statement that because of the incentives, families and schools had saved 1.17 billion kilowatts per hour in electricity compared with a year earlier. The savings represent a 740,000-tonne reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, based on the formula of 1.637kg of emissions per 1kWh of electricity, the statement said.
■CLOTHING
H&M opens shop in Japan
Swedish clothing giant Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) opened its first outlet in Japan yesterday, where competition in the casual fashion industry is fierce. More than 3,000 people, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, lined up at the company’s first store in Tokyo’s shopping district of Ginza ahead of a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Japan becomes the 30th country with H&M outlets. The company has 1,600 shops and 800 production bases worldwide. Rolf Eriksen, chief executive of the Stockholm-based company, recently told Japanese media that he plans to expand outlets across the country. It has already decided to open two more stores in the capital’s leading fashion districts of Harajuku and Shibuya.
■TELECOMS
PRC firms win contracts
Chinese telecom firms Huawei (華為) and ZTE (中興通訊) have won contracts worth US$75 million to expand the mobile phone network in Libya, the state-run telecommunications office said on Friday. A total of US$58 million has been awarded to expand the existing network of the Libyana public mobile phone company from 1 million lines to 6.5 million lines, a statement said. ZTE and Huawei will also expand the mobile network along the Libyan coast.
■FOOD
Campbell recalls soup
Campbell Soup Asia Ltd has recalled 330,000 cans of soup in Hong Kong and Macau after fielding complaints that some cans emitted an “objectionable smell,” the company said on Friday. It is the first time Campbell has called back products in Asia, Campbell commercial director Heidi Nam said through a spokeswoman. The recall covered cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup and creamy chicken mushroom soup manufactured in Malaysia, Nam said. All cans were exclusively distributed in Hong Kong and Macau, she said.
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
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
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
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