After a four-year hiatus, the biennial Taiwan Aerospace & Defense Technology Expo (TADTE) opened yesterday in Taipei, with the US joining for the first time in four years.
The 16th edition of the show is the largest ever displayed, said the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), an organizer of the event. The expo is being held at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 1 until tomorrow.
It features about 280 exhibitors and 970 booths, along with numerous company representatives from 10 countries, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said.
PHOTO: AP
CEREMONY
At the opening ceremony, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Sandra Oudkirk congratulated the organizers on their historic participation in the biennial expo, which due to the COVID-19 pandemic had not been held since 2019.
“The strong turnout reflects the rapid development and growth of Taiwan’s aerospace and defense industry, as well as the growing international attention to trade and investment opportunities in the Taiwan market,” Oudkirk said in her opening remarks.
She said the AIT is hosting a pavilion at the show for the first time, in light of the two sides’ “long and robust history of partnership in the aerospace and defense sectors.”
The US features some of the biggest US industry leaders, including Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp, L3Harris Technologies Inc, Raytheon Co and BAE Systems Inc, Oudkirk said, adding that 41 small to medium-sized companies are showcasing their products.
The Prague-based Czech-Taiwanese Business Chamber, is also hosting a Czech pavilion at the three-day show for the first time, TAITRA said.
However, the main focus of this year’s exhibition, is the display by the Ministry of National Defense of more than 50 advanced weapon systems, including a new attack drone, a domestically developed jet trainer simulator and an exoskeleton suit.
SHOWCASE
The ministry’s pavilion aims to showcase the armed forces’ combat readiness, as well as reinforce self-defense awareness among Taiwanese, and boost their confidence in the nation’s military, Major General Lee Chien-ching (李健青) said at a pre-show news conference on Wednesday.
The pavilion is divided into five major areas featuring 54 items covering joint combat equipment, dual-use technology, uncrewed aerial vehicles and simulators, Lee said.
It features contributions from the US Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as the defense ministry’s Armament Bureau and the Chunshan Institute of Science and Technology, he said.
The expo is open to professional buyers on the first two days only, with the general public gaining free admission tomorrow, the organizers said.
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS