Macronix, Mitsubishi ink pact
Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) yesterday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp to develop and manufacture flash memory chips used in mobile phones.
The agreement covers joint design of products and is likely to help the company cut costs, Macronix said in a statement.
The two companies will work together on high-density 128-megabit and 64 Mb flash memory chips for use in newer mobile phones with Internet capabilities, Macronix said.
Sanyang sees Vietnam profits
Sanyang Industrial Co (三陽工業), a maker of cars for Hyundai Motor Co, expects profit at its motorbike unit in Vietnam to more than triple this year as demand surges amid rapid economic growth in the Southeast Asian nation.
Sanyang, which bought Vietnam Manufacturing and Export Processing Co in 2000, expects profit from plants near Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh to rise to about US$25 million from less than US$8 million last year, Sanyang spokesman Yeh Feng-ming (葉峰明) said.
The company, the second-biggest foreign motorbike maker in Vietnam, predicts sales to triple to a projected 240,000 units this year and will rise even more next year, Yeh said, without giving figures.
Transasia charters for Seoul
Transasia Airways Corp (復興航空) will start direct flights to Seoul next month, temporarily reviving air links for the first time in 10 years, the South Korean government said.
Transasia Airways received approval from the transportation min-istry to operate 36 charter flights to Yang Yang Airport in Gangwon Province between Dec. 22 and Feb. 18, the peak ski season.
Regular direct flights by the two national carriers between South Korea and Taiwan ended in 1992 following Seoul's decision to establish diplomatic relations with China.
Goldman may get second try
Goldman Sachs Group Inc may be given a second chance to sell part of the government's stake in Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), two years after it first won the business, an official said.
Goldman was hired on a two-year contract in 2000 to sell 12 percent of Chunghwa, valued at NT$57 billion (US$1.6 billion) at today's price, in the form of American depositary shares.
The government aborted four attempts to sell the stake this year after overseas investors balked at its asking price as global stock markets plunged in value.
The government wants to cut its stake in Chunghwa to 34 percent and is "finalizing a decision to renew or extend the contract with Goldman Sachs,'' said Wang Ting-chun (王廷俊), a Ministry of Transportation and Communications section chief.
Taiwan boosts IT in China
The nation's information technology manufacturers have contributed greatly to the rapid growth of China's IT industry, whose hardware production value now ranks second in the world, the Ins-titute of Information Industry said.
The institute yesterday said hardware production value of China's IT industry in 2002 is estimated at US$35.225 billion, of which 64 percent is contributed by manu-facturers from Taiwan.
The output from Taiwan makers' Chinese production will account for 46.9 percent of their overall production this year, up from last year's 36.9 percent, it said.
NT dollar slides
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell against its US counterpart, edging down NT$0.047 to close at NT$34.820 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$512.5 million, compared with the previous day's US$285 million.
Agencies
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