■FINANCE
BOT to open in Shanghai
Bank of Taiwan (BOT, 臺灣銀行) plans to open a branch in Shanghai to offer banking services to Chinese clients. The move follows the bank’s establishment of yuan business in Hong Kong last year, BOT chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) told reporters yesterday in Taipei. With the rising number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, Taiwan will offer cash withdrawal services to Chinese Unionpay cards through automated teller machines from 18 banks in Taiwan by the end of the month, Chang said. Separately, Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控), the parent of BOT, does not have any share sale plan this year or next year, Chang said.
■ENERGY
Huaneng to start reactors
China Huaneng Group (華能集團), China’s biggest power company, plans to start operating high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors in Shandong Province in 2013, company vice president Huang Yongda (黃永達) told a climate conference in Beijing. China Huaneng and its partners, including Tsinghua University, are building the 200-megawatt trial nuclear plant using domestic technology, Huang said yesterday. The high-temperature gas-cooled reactors are “highly efficient and safe” and have support from the central government’s strategy to boost energy security, Huang said.
■TRANSPORTATION
Cruise ship visits Keelung
Keelung Harbor welcomed a liner from Star Cruises, the largest cruise line in the Asia-Pacific region, on Friday as it began its seasonal cruise service connecting Keelung and Japan’s Ryukyu Islands. The vessel, the SuperStar Libra, was scheduled to depart from Keelung at 10pm on Friday with 1,400 passengers on board for Japan’s Yonaguni Island. The four-day cruise will make port calls at several destinations in the Ryukyu Island chain, including Ishigaki Island. The SuperStar Libra, which has 740 cabins, is scheduled to operate 74 tours between Keelung and the Ryukyu Islands from now until Oct. 24.
■SPAIN
Economy up in first quarter
Spain’s economy took a tentative step out of recession by growing in the first three months of this year after six quarters of contraction, the Bank of Spain said on Friday. GDP rose 0.1 percent from January to March, but shrank 1.3 percent from a year earlier, the bank said. Spain’s large budget deficit remains a concern to the EU amid fears that the crisis over Greece’s large debt load could spread to other countries with large budget shortfalls, the bank said. Spain’s economy is four times the size of Greece’s, and last week Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s credit rating from AA+ to AA.
■SHIPPING
Oil tanker launched
Brazil on Friday launched the first of 10 domestically built oil tankers it will use to boost its trade in “black gold” and give new life to its shipbuilding industry. The 274m-long vessel, named the Jaoa Candido after a famous black Brazilian sailor, cost US$120 million and can transport 1 million barrels of crude — approximately half the daily output of Brazilian state oil company Petrobras. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva led the launching ceremony, telling the 3,700 shipyard workers that the tanker symbolized “a people’s high affirmation.” Brazil is sitting on 14 billion barrels of proven reserves of crude oil and expects to more than triple that with recent offshore finds, propelling it into the ranks of major oil exporters.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy