The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it expects about NT$200 billion (US$6.56 billion) of the approved investments by Taiwanese companies moving production back to the nation to materialize by the end of this year.
The ministry’s statement followed its announcement on Thursday that it had approved two more investment applications: Shuz Tung Machinery Industrial Co’s (旭東機械) NT$900 million and more than NT$200 million from Sunder Biomedical Tech Co (善德生化科技), which plan to expand their capacities in Taiwan.
Including the two latest approvals, the ministry has given the green light to 151 companies’ applications to invest a total of NT$623.6 billion since the beginning of this year, which are expected to create 54,970 jobs, it said.
About a third of this sum should materialize by the end of the year, Ho Kun-sung (何坤松), chief operating officer and spokesman for the ministry’s InvesTaiwan Service Center, told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“We estimated that about NT$200 billion [should materialize] by this year from Taiwanese companies returning to invest in the nation, while another NT$200 billion should materialize by the end of next year,” he said.
The ministry considers new investments as having materialized if the company has bought new land and equipment or has started construction of new factories as stated in its application, center director Emile Chang (張銘斌) said.
“That [NT$200 billion] is a practical estimate, as many companies have proceeded,” Chang said.
Shuz Tung, a supplier of machinery equipment to companies such as bicycle makers Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大) and Merida Industry Co (美利達), on Thursday said it plans to set up a smart manufacturing facility near its headquarters at the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which would focus on providing equipment for thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays and related packaging.
The Taichung-based company said its decision was prompted by its customers’ relocation plans.
It would simultaneously expand its existing plant in Taichung, as it is expanding into the aerospace industry, the ministry said, adding that the company would offer 56 job opportunities.
Sunder Biomedical said it is relocating its China orders to Taiwan amid rising trade tensions between the US and China, adding that it would purchase smart machinery equipment for its facilities in Yunlin County and Taichung’s Cingshuei District (清水).
The plan is expected to provide about 25 job opportunities.
Separately, the ministry on Thursday approved applications by four small and medium-sized enterprises to invest nearly NT$1.3 billion.
Bicycle component manufacturer Glory Wheel Enterprise Co (金盛元興業) plans to invest NT$90 million to expand its plant in Taichung’s Daya District (大雅) to develop its electric bicycle business.
Re-Dai Precision Tools Co (銳泰精密工具) is to invest NT$200 million to install a smart production line at its plant in Chiayi, while cold forming auto parts manufacturer Extend Forming Industrial Co (英鈿工業) is to invest more than NT$800 million to add advanced processing equipment to its plant in Kaohsiung.
Yu Hong Steel Industrial Corp (昱鋐實業), which specializes in the manufacturing and design of steel equipment, plans to invest NT$100 million to automate its plant in Pingtung County.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
AI: Softbank’s stake increases in Nvidia and TSMC reflect Masayoshi Son’s effort to gain a foothold in key nodes of the AI value chain, from chip design to data infrastructure Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI). The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed. Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year,
RSS