In one of the first examples of a company hiring back workers since the global downturn shut down production lines this year, a US subsidiary of Taiwan Semicon-ductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) began taking people back, the company said yesterday.
"We are experiencing an uptick in customer orders. As a result, WaferTech LLC is beginning a small recall of production specialists to help handle demand," said Tzeng Jinnhaw (
"[WaferTech managers] haven't decided how many yet. This will depend on orders. If orders remain strong, then more and more people will be rehired ..."
Washington State-based WaferTech laid off 280 people in May and another 44 in September. At the same time, TSMC imposed a hiring freeze, but did not fire workers or idle plants, even though half of its production lines were not being used.
Now new orders for state-of-the-art chips from companies such as graphics chip firm Nvidia, which designs chips for Microsoft's Xbox, are increasing, are making factories hum again.
TSMC officials told the Taipei Times last week that demand for its highest technology manufacturing processes had increased significantly.
One chip executive who asked not to be identified said TSMC plants that make chips using tiny 0.18, 0.15 and 0.13 micron pro-cesses have been completely filled with orders. Such fine manufacturing -- etching transistors over 100-times thinner than a human hair onto a chip -- commands the highest prices.
Signs of a high-tech industry turnaround bode well for Taiwan. The chip industry is a leading indicator of how the overall tech industry is doing, and the sector was poised to make a record 31 percent drop this year.
Companies like US-based Intel and AMD responded to the downturn by slashing CPU prices in order to spur computer demand. Rising demand for new products like game machines and DVD players has also kick started the industry in the fourth quarter, according to analysts.
Taiwan's central bank governor said yesterday a US turnaround would precede a rebound here.
The recession in the US has had a major impact on the domestic economy. Nearly 25 percent of Taiwan's exports go to the US, most of which are high-tech products.
Taiwan's unemployment rate hit 5.33 percent this month, the highest on record, and the government says the economy will contract by as much as 2.12 percent for the year.
WaferTech's rebound immediately impacted TSMC's bottom line. New orders have been coming in so fast that TSMC on Monday revised its after-tax profit forecast up by over 50 percent to NT$14 billion (US$406 million), and its sales forecast for the year to NT$125 billion.
Earlier this year, TSMC Chairman Morris Chang (
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group