Tariff cuts to be extended
The government plans to extend tariff cuts on wheat, wheat flour, milk powder and four other products by six months from today to Feb. 9 next year to help stabilize rising prices, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
The move comes as the nation continues to fight rising inflationary pressure owing to higher food import prices.
The government initially lowered tariffs on wheat and wheat flour by 50 percent and those on milk powder by 25 percent on Feb. 10 for six months.
TSMC board approves bond sale
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chip maker, said yesterday its board had approved a proposal to sell as much as NT$35 billion (US$1.2 billion) in unsecured corporate bonds domestically to obtain long-term, low fixed-cost funding, according to a company statement.
TSMC didn’t give a timing and pricing for the bond sale.
HTC, China Unionpay team up
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand, yesterday said it was teaming up with China Unionpay (中國銀聯) to tap into China’s growing mobile payment market.
The first product of the partnership is a soon-to-be-launched HTC smartphone that incorporates Unionpay features, allowing consumers access to its mobile banking and mobile payment services.
HTC is tapping China’s mobile payment sector via its strategic partner Shanghai F-road Commercial Services Co (上海方付通商務服務), a mobile application developer that provides tailor-made apps for financial institutions to offer mobile financial services on smartphones.
Taiwan short of Toyotas
Taiwan is short of imports of some 2,000 finished Toyota vehicles as a result of the automaker’s stunted production lines from a power rationing policy in Japan.
The company’s assembly plants in Japan have so far regained 90 percent of their production capacity in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Toyota’s local dealer, Hotai Motor (和泰汽車), said yesterday.
However, due to Japan’s power rationing plan, Toyota’s plants cannot recover their full output until October, after which Taiwan’s shortage of some popular Toyota models is expected to be relieved.
According to Hotai, Taiwan is currently short of models, such as the Lexus CT200 and Toyota’s Prius, Previa and RAV4.
Formosa Plastics expects gains
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) may gain NT$109 million from selling real estate in Greater Kaohsiung for NT$647 million yesterday, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Cut stock fall limits: lawmaker
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to halve the 7 percent maximum allowable fall in share prices to help stabilize the stock market.
The stock exchange cut the maximum allowable daily fall to combat market slumps in late 2000, September 2001 and October 2008.
Presidential Office S pokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said Ma was paying close attention to the global situation and had asked the Executive Yuan to adopt necessary measures to help stabilize the market.
NT dollar retreats
The New Taiwan dollar slid NT$0.025 to close at NT$29.050 against the US dollar yesterday.
Turnover totaled US$1.631 billion, compared with US$1.323 billion on Monday.
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose up to 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan’s semiconductor exports to the US to encourage chip manufacturers to move their production facilities to the US, but experts are questioning his strategy, warning it could harm industries on both sides. “I’m very confused and surprised that the Trump administration would try and do this,” Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst and founder of TECHnalysis Research in California, said in an interview with the Central News Agency on Wednesday. “It seems to reflect the fact that they don’t understand how the semiconductor industry really works,” O’Donnell said. Economic sanctions would