TELECOMS
Xiaomi phone goes on sale
Local telecoms Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) and Taiwan Star Telecom Corp (台灣之星) are to begin selling Xiaomi Corp’s (小米) new entry-level Red Rice series of smartphones on Saturday. Before hitting the bricks-and-mortar stores of the phone companies, the new Red Rice Note 4 will be available from Xiaomi’s Web site at mi.com from today. The Chinese firm said it has sold 110 million Red Rice phones worldwide. The new Red Rice Note 4 runs on MediaTek Inc’s (聯發科) flagship deca-core chip, the Helio X20. The phone supports 4G technology and carries a price tag of NT$5,999.
ELECTRONICS
Delta joins CharIN
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the nation’s leading power and thermal management solutions provider, yesterday said it has become a core member of the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN) in the company’s latest effort to expand its presence in the electronic vehicles industry. CharIN is an open coalition of world-class companies in the electronic vehicles industry which aims to support and promote the Combined Charging System as the global standard for charging vehicles. Delta’s power system business group vice president and general manager Victor Cheng (鄭安) said Delta is to cooperate with other CharIN members to deliver energy-efficient, highly capable and user-friendly charging solutions.
FINANCE
Manulife sees higher TAIEX
Manulife Asset Management Taiwan Co (宏利投信) yesterday forecast that the TAIEX would reach 9,550 before the end of this year, driven by high dividend yields and low foreign-exchange exposures. As Europe, Japan and other developed economies implement negative interest rate policies, local shares are becoming more attractive, Manulife Taiwan head of equities Stevie Chou (周奇賢) said. In addition, momentum would be boosted by peak-season shipments from the technology and traditional industry sectors, Chou said. In terms of valuation, local shares are trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 1.6, which is in line with the range of 1.5 to 1.7 recorded during the past six years, Chou said.
AVIATION
AIDC to update ISS module
Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空工業), the nation’s largest civilian and military aircraft manufacturer, yesterday announced a new collaborative project with National Cheng Kung University to upgrade a particle physics experiment mounted on the International Space Station (ISS). A new version of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer module is expected to complete NASA inspections and be installed on the space station by 2019, AIDC said. The current module was developed by AIDC between 2006 and 2009, and has been deployed in low-Earth orbit since May 2011.
BANKING
Yuanta rebrands subsidiary
Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) yesterday announced that it had rebranded its banking subsidiary in the Philippines as Yuanta Savings Bank Philippines, Inc. The company is hoping to provide improved localized financial services under the new brand, it said. In addition to Philippine and South Korean clients, Yuanta is also targeting top listed companies and Taiwanese-run enterprises in the Southeast Asia region, it added.
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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