PHARMACEUTICALS
FamilyMart eyes pharmacies
Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), the nation’s No. 2 convenience store chain, yesterday said that it plans to provide pharmacy services and organic farming products to meet demand. Taiwan FamilyMart chairman and chief executive officer Yeh Jung-ting (葉榮廷) said at a news conference that the company has decided to team up with Great Tree Pharmacy chain (大樹連鎖藥局) and foods supplier Tanhou (天和鮮物) to provide the new services in selective stores. Yeh said demand for the “large-format convenience store” is rising and that Taiwan FamilyMart would keep looking for potential partners to expand this new business.
AUTOMAKERS
Mazda cuts parts prices
Mazda Motor Corp yesterday lowered prices of imported auto parts and components, such as headlights, windshields and bumpers used for the CX-5 and Mazda 6 models, by up to 50 percent for local consumers after taking over its component supply business from its former partner Ford Distribution Taiwan Ltd (品爵汽車). The announcement comes a year after the Japanese automaker set up its local subsidiary, Mazda Motor Taiwan, to sell its cars. The company had cooperated with Ford Lio Ho Motor Co (福特六和) in selling Mazda cars for 15 years.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Eversol to aid Green Energy
Solar wafer maker Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技) yesterday said it had signed an outsourcing agreement with smaller wafer supplier Eversol Corp (旭晶能源) to cope with rising demand for high-end wafer products. Green Energy said the manufacturing agreement for ingot growth and wafer slicing with Eversol is part of its expansion plan, which is to bring its total multi-crystalline wafer capacity to more than 3 gigawatts (GW) from 2GW, making it among the world’s top three multi-crystalline wafer suppliers. The deal is also expected to increase bargaining power for raw materials, Green Energy said in a statement.
BANKING
Asset quality healthy: FSC
Taiwanese banks’ average non-performing loan ratio stayed unchanged at 0.26 percent at the end of May, reflecting healthy asset quality for the 39 domestic lenders, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the coverage ratio — loans covered by banks’ provisions and a gauge indicating the sufficiency of bad loan reserves — rose 3.52 percentage points to 490.55 percent in May, the commission said. Total outstanding loans at domestic banks stood at NT$25.23 trillion (US$811.25 billion) in May, an increase of NT$48.9 billion from April, while bad loans totaled NT$64.9 billion, a decrease of NT$300 million from the previous month’s NT$65.2 billion, the commission said.
MANUFACTURING
FPG to raise wages
Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團), the nation’s largest industrial group, on Tuesday said it had decided to raise wages for its employees by about 4.52 percent following negotiations with its labor union. The hike includes a 3.5 percent raise in monthly salaries and NT$6,000 in allowances for the entire year, which represents a 4.52 percent increase in monthly pay for employees. The union said that although the hike was lower than it had asked for, the amount remained acceptable. The union had demanded a 4 percent raise in wages and a NT$10,000 increase in allowances.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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