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South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Chinese tech hub Shenzhen launches plan to support consumption, exporters amid trade war
China's top export city and tech hub, Shenzhen, is stepping up efforts to boost domestic consumption and support exporters amid a turbulent trade war between Beijing and Washington. Advertisement 'Consumption is the fundamental driving force behind economic growth and development,' according to a 39-point plan released by the Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Commission on Friday. Shenzhen will leverage its strategic strengths in four key categories: artificial intelligence (AI) terminals, smart home systems, modern fashion, and outdoor equipment. The city will make good use of trade exhibitions and other resources to 'help enterprises better respond to tariffs', according to the document. China's consumption market has shown gradual improvement but still requires further stimulation, especially as external demand is under pressure due to US President Donald Trump's tariff war. At a meeting of the country's Politburo in late April – a Communist Party conclave that typically sets the tone for economic work in the second quarter – the high-level political body vowed to 'resolutely focus on doing our business, steadfastly expand high-level opening up and focus on stabilising employment, businesses, markets, and expectations'. Advertisement Consumption is a key driver of economic growth, and establishing long-term mechanisms to promote consumption is crucial, according to a commentary published under the pen name Jin Guanping in the state-owned Economic Daily on Sunday.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Taiwan's government strengthens 'silicon shield,' restricts exports of TSMC's most advanced process technologies
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Taiwan plans to tighten control over exports of advanced process technologies as well as outbound semiconductor investments, reports Economic Daily. The new legal measures will enforce the 'N-1' technology restriction, essentially barring TSMC from exporting its latest production nodes, and introduce penalties for violations— but there's a major catch for TSMC. The 'N-1' policy, confirmed by Premier Cho Jung-tai, will apply to TSMC's planned production in the United States. This approach restricts export of the most advanced process technology, allowing only one generation older to be deployed abroad. Before this amendment, Taiwan's regulations did not explicitly require such controls for semiconductor manufacturing processes. These rules are based on Article 22 of the amended Industrial Innovation Act, which is expected to take effect by the end of 2025. There is a major catch about TSMC's most advanced process technology, though. Today, TSMC has one leading-edge node: N3P manufacturing technology. But by the end of the year, it will start producing chips on its N2 fabrication process, which will become its flagship. Starting from late 2026 and onwards, however, TSMC expects to have two flagship nodes: N2P for client applications that do not need advanced power delivery and A16 with Super Power Rail backside power delivery for HPC applications that consume a lot of power. It remains to be seen which process technology will be considered as 'flagship' by Taiwanese authorities, and therefore export restricted, or if the government will ban exports of both nodes for a year when TSMC introduces successors for N2P and A16, its A14 and A16P nodes. In addition, the amended law, passed after its third reading in the Taiwan parliament, gives Taiwan's authorities the right to reject or cancel overseas investments if they are found to compromise national security, damage the country's economic development, violate treaty obligations, or result in unresolved major labor disputes. Under the new law, these six conditions are retained, but are now backed by higher-level legislation. The revised Article 22 also includes the possibility of partially or fully rejecting investments or attaching conditions to approval. If a company receives approval but later triggers any of these risks, the central authorities are authorized to demand corrective action or revoke the investment entirely if the issue is serious. The new law elevates existing investment restrictions from sub-regulations to formal legislation and adds legal consequences for non-compliance. The Ministry of Economic Affairs stated that the law's implementation date will be announced only after the sub-regulations are revised, within six months. This means the earliest enforcement could begin by late 2025. The regulation's rollout comes amid rising geopolitical risks and after TSMC announced plans to increase its investments in its American production capacity from $65 billion over four years to $165 billion over an undisclosed period. The amendment also introduces penalties that were not present before. Companies that invest abroad without prior approval may face fines ranging from NT$50,000 to NT$1 million ($30,830). If an investment is approved but the company later fails to correct identified violations — such as endangering national security or harming economic development—the authorities can impose repeated fines of NT$500,000 ($15,414) to NT$10 million ($308,286). But given that TSMC plans to invest $165 billion in its U.S. facilities, a $300,000 fine will hardly affect the company's bottom Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
The Star
27-04-2025
- Business
- The Star
China's ‘involution' trap is hurting nation's competitiveness, state media warns
Chinese state media has refreshed its calls for local-level governments and businesses to refrain from unhealthy, exhausting competition that is feared to be damaging the competitiveness of the nation's economy, as the issue remains a headache for Beijing. A self-defeating cycle of excessive competition – known as neijuan , or involution – has remained prevalent, distorting market dynamics and hindering sustainable growth, the Economic Daily warned in a commentary on Wednesday, as the issue has been a focal point in the past year. Explaining the term as 'the harder you work, the less you gain', the state-owned newspaper focusing on economic reports urged government officials and business owners to focus on long-term economic health rather than short-term gains. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Such a phenomenon 'traps all kinds of entities in a vicious cycle of low-price, low-quality, and ineffective repeated competition, ultimately damaging the overall competitiveness of related industries in China', it said. Among local governments, that type of self-defeating competition includes misguided efforts to attract businesses through unsustainable policies – such as offering excessive incentives like tax breaks and subsidies – resulting in rising debt and long-term risks, the newspaper noted. For businesses, 'involution' manifests in excessive price wars, a lack of differentiation, and a focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term innovation, which leads to resource waste, stagnation and lowered overall competitiveness. The commentary used solar energy as an example, with the output value of China's photovoltaic manufacturing industry slumping by more than 40 per cent in the first 10 months of 2024 from the same period of 2023. In March, Premier Li Qiang vowed to launch a 'comprehensive crackdown on neijuan ' during his work report to the National People's Congress – the first time the premier has mentioned the once-obscure concept in his agenda-setting annual address. In what has been seen as a response to Beijing's push to stop vicious competition, e-commerce platforms jointly announced on Tuesday that they would abandon a 'refund-only' policy that has been criticised for straining merchant profit margins. Major platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo will no longer proactively intervene in after-sales requests made by consumers for refunds without returning the goods that they have already received. Such issues will be left to sellers and buyers to negotiate instead, in a move to balance merchant-rights protection with an improved consumer experience, they said. Taobao is operated by Alibaba Group, which owns the South China Morning Post. the parcel-logistics services giant that expanded to food delivery earlier this year, and on-demand delivery firm Meituan have been accusing each other this week of the monopolistic behaviour of blocking part-time delivery riders from accepting orders on both platforms. More from South China Morning Post: For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2025.
South China Morning Post
24-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's ‘involution' trap is hurting nation's competitiveness, state media warns
Chinese state media has refreshed its calls for local-level governments and businesses to refrain from unhealthy, exhausting competition that is feared to be damaging the competitiveness of the nation's economy, as the issue remains a headache for Beijing. Advertisement A self-defeating cycle of excessive competition – known as neijuan , or involution – has remained prevalent, distorting market dynamics and hindering sustainable growth, the Economic Daily warned in a commentary on Wednesday, as the issue has been a focal point in the past year. Explaining the term as 'the harder you work, the less you gain', the state-owned newspaper focusing on economic reports urged government officials and business owners to focus on long-term economic health rather than short-term gains. Such a phenomenon 'traps all kinds of entities in a vicious cycle of low-price, low-quality, and ineffective repeated competition, ultimately damaging the overall competitiveness of related industries in China', it said. Among local governments, that type of self-defeating competition includes misguided efforts to attract businesses through unsustainable policies – such as offering excessive incentives like tax breaks and subsidies – resulting in rising debt and long-term risks, the newspaper noted. Advertisement For businesses, 'involution' manifests in excessive price wars, a lack of differentiation, and a focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term innovation, which leads to resource waste, stagnation and lowered overall competitiveness.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US-made chip prices could soar if the rumour that TSMC might charge 'as much as 30%' more for its Arizona chips pans out
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The chip industry—as with many others, I'm sure—is, at least to onlookers like myself, in very uncertain waters of late, thanks to the United States' upsy-downy-round-and-roundy 'will he, won't he?' tariff position. The goal is ostensibly to have production shimmy on over to the US, but we're now hearing rumour that even some chip production that is already in the US might have its prices raised. This latest rumour comes from Economic Daily (via TrendForce), which reports that "market sources say that due to the high demand for production capacity and reflecting costs, TSMC is planning to increase the price of [its] 4nm foundry at its new US plant by as much as 30%" (machine translated). This "new US plant" is TSMC's Arizona fab, which is already making AMD Ryzen 9000-series and Nvidia Blackwell chips. It's currently producing chips on a 4 nm (N4) process but is aiming at 3 nm, 2 nm, and following this, according to today's TSMC earnings call (transcript here), 1.4 nm and 1.0 nm. Currently it's 4 nm, though, and a 30% price hike would be nothing for we gamers to scoff at, not in a market where Nvidia is pointing out there's nothing it can do about potential chip tariffs, and it's looking like said tariffs might actually be right around the corner. In fact, if TSMC does raise prices, this might be a result of actual or threatened tariffs for two reasons. First, it could be a means to make up for losses caused by tariffs on TSMC's larger non-US side of the business. Second, there's the simple fact that in economics, higher demand means higher prices, and if Trump launches tariffs at foreign semiconductors, then US semiconductors such as those coming out of TSMC Arizona will be in high demand. During its earnings call today, TSMC didn't have much to say about 4 nm prices, and it rarely does comment on customer prices. It did, however, say that some "margin dilutions" may "come from the cost [of] inflation as well as potential cost increases from the tariff policies", and regarding this, "discussion with the customers are continuous." In other words, cards close to the chest, as always. Your next machine Best gaming PC: The top pre-built gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming. I must say, the "as much as 30%" rumoured figure is strikingly close to the current 32% tariff on Taiwan, where TSMC—Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company—is, of course, based. That doesn't apply to semiconductors, of course, but it looks like it, or something like it, soon might. I'm also struck by the vision of Trump threatening TSMC with up to 100% tariffs if it didn't build its plant in the US. Now I'm not saying this is what's going on, but there would be a certain satisfaction to saying, 'Sure, we'll build our fabs in America… and then charge American companies up to 30% extra. You have your tariffs, we have our pricing.' Still, TSMC has announced a $100 billion investment in the US and raising prices for no reason other than retaliation might not be the smartest business decision. If prices are raised, it'll likely be for the reasons discussed earlier. Here's hoping things simmer down long enough to land us with some actual RTX 50-series and RX 9000-series stocks. Sign in to access your portfolio
