TRADE
Delegation to visit China
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said Industrial Development Bureau Director-General Wu Ming-ji (吳明機) is to lead a delegation to Beijing this morning to attend a small-scale informal negotiation with China regarding the cross-strait trade in goods agreement. “The half-day meeting with Bejing is aimed to narrow the gap on tariff reductions for industrial and agricultural products between Taiwan and China,” Wu told a press conference. The issues of special rules of product origin and trade remedies would also be discussed during the meeting, he said. The 13th round of formal talks on the agreement are expected to take place in Taipei after the presidential elections, Wu said.
CHIP TESTERS
SPIL posts revenue growth
Chip tester and packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) yesterday posted 3.7 percent sequential growth in revenue for last quarter of NT$20.77 billion (US$624.3 million), beating the company’s expectation of a 6.14 percent decline. In October, SPIL forecast that revenue last quarter would fall to between NT$18.8 billion and NT$20 billion. The better-than-expected figure came after SPIL posted a 2.4 percent monthly growth in revenue for last month of NT$6.93 billion from November’s NT$6.77 billion. Last year, SPIL’s total revenue edged lower 0.3 percent to NT$82.84 billion from NT$83.07 billion a year earlier.
SOLAR WAFERS
Green expects price rise
Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), the nation’s largest solar wafer maker, yesterday said it expected a price uptick last quarter to extend into this quarter, driven by rising demand for high-end solar wafers. Green Energy said it was unable to fully satisfy customers’ demand and it would farm out production to solve the supply constraint. The company yesterday posted a 9.4 percent sequential increase in revenue for last month at NT$1.53 billion from NT$1.4 billion in November. For the whole of last year, revenue was up 1.45 percent to NT$15.5 billion from NT$15.28 billion in 2014.
GROCERIES
Delivery service launched
Singapore-based Honestbee (誠實蜜蜂) yesterday launched an online grocery concierge service in Taipei that pledges door-to-door delivery within one hour. Initially, the service will be only made available in the districts of Shihlin (士林), Daan (大安), Xinyi (信義) and Songshan (松山), the company said. The company said its grocery concierge service is also a part-time employment platform for those seeking extra income as designated shoppers and delivery people.
AUTOMAKERS
Mercedes reports good sales
Despite slow domestic economic growth, the luxury car market in Taiwan was hot last year, with 21,500 new Mercedes-Benz being sold, the Taiwan branch of the company said yesterday. It said one in every 1,000 people in Taiwan bought a Mercedes-Benz last year, increasing the company’s share of the Taiwan auto market to 5.2 percent. The strong sales were attributed to Mercedes-Benz Taiwan’s successful launch last year of 14 new models, which attracted nearly 30 percent of young buyers. This year will see a sharp growth in sales of the Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class and GLE-Class SUV models, the company said.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
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