Taiwan has added 77 items to the list of machine tools restricted from being exported to Russia and Belarus that is set to take effect on March 8 in a bid to prevent the Russian military from using Taiwan’s high-tech products in its war in Ukraine, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday.
Taiwan imposed export controls on a number of high-end machine tools to Russia and Belarus last year and is widening the scope of export restrictions to 77 additional products to stay in line with the tightened export sanctions imposed by the European Union, the US and Japan, an official with the ministry’s International Trade Administration (ITA) said.
The items added to the new export controls list include sophisticated equipment called CNC machine tools, machining centers, lathes and turning machines, milling machines, and grinding machines.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan’s exports of the 77 items to Russia reached US$45 million last year, accounting for 1.47 percent of Taiwan’s total exports to Russia, the ITA official said.
With increasing global awareness of the risk posed by weapon proliferation, if Taiwan’s machine tools were found to be exported to Russia for the production of military weapons, this could affect German and Japanese key component manufacturers’ willingness to sell their products to Taiwan and thus impact the upstream and downstream supply chain in the machine tool industry, the official said.
The ministry said it has also requested Taiwanese manufacturers exporting to countries such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, which are considered to have a high risk of reshipping the products, to agree not to redirect shipments to Russia and Belarus.
The Taiwan Machine Tool and Accessory Builder’s Association said yesterday that the expanded sanctions against specific exports to Russia are expected to affect the entire industry and it hopes the government will help businesses in the industry to upgrade and transform their techniques and technology.
The association also expressed hopes the government would seek to sign free-trade agreements with trade partners and join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), an Asia-Pacific trade bloc, to allow Taiwanese businesses to enjoy preferential tariffs and help them expand internationally.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
RSS