SMARTPHONES
BlackBerry back to keyboards
BlackBerry Ltd, which struggled to entice customers with touch screen models last year, plans to return its focus to keyboard-equipped phones under chief executive officer John Chen (程守宗). “I personally love the keyboards,” Chen said on Monday in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Jon Erlichman at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the future, the company’s phones will “predominantly” have physical keyboards, he said, rather than touch screens. BlackBerry also announced the hiring of former HTC Corp (宏達電) and Sony Ericsson executive Ron Louks to run its devices business.
TECHNOLOGY
Intel to use ‘moral minerals’
Intel Corp has announced that all the processors it makes this year will use minerals that do not hail from mines held by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the first major US technology company to make the move, which is the fruit of four years of work by Intel to determine the sources of four crucial metals widely used in electronics manufacturing: tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold. The east of the African country is rich in minerals and other economic activity in the area has been disrupted by nearly two decades of fighting between the government, rogue soldiers and different ethnic groups.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan to build Brazil plant
Auto giant Nissan Motor Co is planning to build an engine plant at its industrial complex in Resende in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro State, Renault-Nissan Alliance chief executive Carlos Ghosn said on Monday. “It is the first time that I’ve visited the plant, which will build the Nissan March and Nissan Versa models,” he told reporters at the complex 140km west of Rio. He said the factory is to be inaugurated in the first half of this year. The project, which required US$60 million in investment, is expected to churn out 200,000 four-cylinder 1.6 flexfuel engines a year and create 200 direct jobs, Ghosn said.
REAL ESTATE
HK property deals plummet
The number of properties sold in Hong Kong fell by more than one-third last year to a 17-year low, as a surge in sales tax designed to burst a price bubble turned off buyers in one of the world’s most expensive property markets. Despite steep discounts offered by influential property developers, the total number of sale and purchase agreements concluded last year was 70,503, down 39 percent from 2012, according to the Hong Kong Land Registry. The value of deals also dropped, dipping 30 percent from a year earlier to HK$456 billion (US$59 billion). Forecasters expect the downturn to continue this year.
SERVICES
US service firms grow slowly
US service companies expanded at a steady, but slightly slower, pace last month as sales dipped and new orders plunged to a four-year low. The report suggests that US economic growth may remain modest in the coming months. The Institute for Supply Management on Monday said that its service sector index fell to 53 last month, down from 53.9 in November. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion. A measure of new orders plummeted 7 points to 49.4, the first time it has dropped below 50 since July 2009. A gauge of business stockpiles also fell sharply, but a gauge of hiring increased 3.3 points to 55.8, evidence that services firms are adding more jobs.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
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