■HONG KONG
Disneyland to expand
Lawmakers in the special administrative region have approved a government plan to expand the city’s Disneyland at a cost of about US$465 million. The approval late on Friday came after the Walt Disney Co and the Hong Kong government agreed to expand their joint venture, Hong Kong Disneyland, two weeks ago after two years of negotiation. The proposed expansion will add three more theme areas and 30 more new attractions, enlarging the park by nearly a quarter over the next five years.
■CHINA
Firm gets go-ahead for IPO
A construction company has received approval for the biggest initial public stock offering this year and hopes to raise 42.6 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion), a state newspaper reported yesterday. China State Construction Engineering Corp (中國建築工程), the country’s biggest builder of housing, plans to issue 12 billion shares, the China Securities Journal reported. The company’s showcase projects include the “Water Cube” swimming center for the Beijing Olympics, the futuristic state TV headquarters and the Shanghai World Financial Center.
■INTERNET
Rosetta Stone sues Google
Rosetta Stone, a language-learning software producer, on Friday filed a federal lawsuit against Google for infringing its trademark through Google’s AdWords online advertising program. Rosetta Stone charges that Google is wrongly allowing its name and other trademarks to serve as keywords that other businesses can use to target paid advertisements to people on the Internet. Google said on Friday that its policy is to allow trademarks to be used to target AdWords advertising.
■AUTOMOBILES
Porsche board calls meeting
The German luxury sports car maker Porsche has scheduled an extraordinary meeting of its supervisory board on July 23 to discuss offers by Qatar and Volkswagen, sources said on Friday. A Porsche spokesman confirmed the meeting, while a source close to the supervisory board said the Qatar and VW offers would be discussed. Invitations were extended by Wolfgang Porsche, head of the supervisory board, the spokesman said.
■AVIATION
Continental to join alliance
The US government on Friday approved Continental Airlines’ bid to join the Star Alliance and granted partial antitrust immunity to a new joint venture within the group. The Transportation Department announced final approval of the requests made by Star members and Continental, confirming an April 7 finding that the proposed agreements would not hurt competition. Continental, the fourth-largest US airline and currently a member of the SkyTeam Alliance, will join Star, a grouping of more than 20 US and international airlines.
■PUBLISHING
Gannett announces cuts
The latest wrenching cutbacks at Gannett Co fell last week, as hundreds of employees at the largest US newspaper publisher received notices of layoffs. The company informed its newspapers last week that roughly 1,400 positions would be cut at Gannett’s US community publishing division, a unit that does not include its flagship USA Today newspaper. It was the latest major cutback for Gannett amid drastic revenue declines across the newspaper industry.
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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