1. Foxconn MIH Alliance Sees Over Hundreds of Japanese Suppliers Join Foxconn's foray into the electric vehicle industry is seeing big gains, as The Nikkei reported that notable Japanese brands like Toyota, and auto part supplier Denso, which has invested in TSMC's Kumamoto factory project, are all slated to join Foxconn's MIH Alliance initiative. Other benchmark Japanese suppliers, such as Ho...

Despite the National Development Council (NDC) announcing a slight drop of the economy's composite index of economic indicators for Taiwan for January on Tuesday, overall signals indicate a strong market and investments performance. The index fell two points from 38 to 36 between December 2021 and January, sitting in the yellow-red range on the council's five-color rating system, with "blue" i...

The COVID-19 pandemic's disruption on the economy has propelled the lesser-known aspects of the global supply chain into mainstream awareness, such as the focus on Taiwan as semiconductor chip demands soared. While Taiwan is more widely known as the semiconductor hub of the world, equally crucial to keeping the world's economy running are hand tools. The island's hand tools sector is a centralize...

The global trade exhibition industry has seen its most turbulent period in the past two years, brought to an abrupt halt by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, seen further setbacks in 2021, and it's expected to continue into 2022, though to a lesser degree, as the industry expects in-person events to open gradually. In an early December press release from 2021, globally-renowned event organizer Me...

The domestic container shipping industry believes that the container ship market is still experiencing difficulties as Asian countries enter the Year of the Tiger. The current information obtained by domestic companies is that the port congestion situation in the U.S. is still difficult and unlikely to lessen in the short term. Fortunately, shipping prices were able to experience a brief repr...

In the past two years, the global COVID-19 outbreak has caused major international exhibitions to be canceled one after another, prompting waves of changes needed to overhaul the marketing model of traditional physical exhibitions. In the past, many international buyers mainly sought overseas potential partners and agency brands by participating in major international exhibitions. However, as...

Walsin Lihwa announced significant price hikes measures going into February for 300 series stainless steel; for domestic sales, prices per ton would be increased NTD$6,000, while outbound stainless steel would see a USD$200 per ton increase. 400 series stainless steel prices will remain at the threshold. With basic metal prices surging, specifically for copper and nickel, the latter saw the bi...

Trade event promoter Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is gearing up for multiple slots of expos this year, including those scheduled in late spring and early summer. For instance, Taiwan's biggest computer expo COMPUTEX will be hosted in a hybrid capacity, with in-person events kicking off on May 24 to 27 at Taipei's Nangang Exhibition Center, while the virtual expo will las...

Hopes are high for Taiwan's export performance for December and the entirety of 2021, reported the Ministry of Economic Affair's Department of Statistics. Export figures are scheduled to be released by the Statistics Department on Jan. 20. Initial estimations show export order value in December at between USD$60.5 billion to USD%62 billion, marking either an annual decrease of 0.1% or an incr...

The new year was ushered in over the weekend; despite new beginnings, trends in 2021 that included shortages and rising prices will continue into 2022, exacerbated by backlogged shipping ports and worsening COVID-19 situations in major manufacturing hubs. Chip Shortages Since the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up in 2020, semiconductor shortages persisted as supply failed to keep up with consumer...