HANDSETS
Xiaomi new model sold out
It took just 9 minutes and 50 seconds for China’s Xiaomi Corp (小米) to sell out of all of its 10,000 Red Rice smartphones made available online for the Taiwanese market, the company said yesterday. The cheapest of Xiaomi’s handsets, the Red Rice costs NT$3,999. The dual-SIM phone, which runs on WCDMA and GSM networks, created a buzz when Xiaomi began accepting online preorders on Monday last week. Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), Taiwan’s third-largest mobile carrier, is the only authorized dealer for the Red Rice phone in Taiwan, though it can also be bought online. Taiwan is Xiaomi’s first overseas market.
TRADE
China trade jumps 18.8%
Trade between Taiwan and China was valued at US$180.71 billion in the first 11 months of this year, an increase of 18.8 percent year-on-year, according to statistics released yesterday by China’s General Administration of Customs. During the January-to-November period, Chinese exports to Taiwan rose 14.1 percent from a year ago to US$37.18 billion, while imports from Taiwan jumped 20.1 percent to US$143.53 billion. Last month alone, trade across the Taiwan Strait totaled US$16.44 billion, with China’s exports to Taiwan accounting for US$3.5 billion and its imports from Taiwan worth US$12.94 billion.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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