Winbond increases spending
Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), Taiwan's second-largest computer-memory chipmaker by market value, increased this year's planned spending on new equipment by 56 percent to expand production of chips using a process that squeezes more semiconductors onto each wafer. Winbond raised its spending plans to NT$7.9 billion ($228 million) from NT$5.1 billion, the company said in a statement. Winbond will start making chips using 0.11-micron technology for Infineon Technologies AG starting in the first quarter to help Europe's second-largest semiconductor maker boost production.
MediaTek expects good quarter
MediaTek Inc (聯發科技), the world's largest designer of chips for DVD players, said higher sales and lower costs will counter falling prices in the current quarter. ``It should be no problem to maintain our third-quarter margins,'' Finance Director Yu Mingto (喻銘鐸) said. ``Will it be better than the third quarter? We'll have to see.'' Sales in October rose by more than half to NT$3 billion ($87 million) from a year ago and were up 3 percent from September. Third-quarter profit rose 37 percent from a year ago to NT$2.6 billion ($75 million) after the company began selling chips more powerful than those of rivals. ``Wafer costs have fallen a little, and our product mix is better, but average selling price erosion is still there,'' Yu said.
EU draft for trade approved
The Executive Yuan has approved a draft of guidelines for expanding economic and trade relations with European Union countries, a government official said Thursday. The official noted that the main targets of the guidelines, which will be implemented between 2002 and 2005, are that annual two-way trade between Taiwan and the European Union will reach US$43 billion by 2005 and that aggregated investment in Taiwan by European enterprises will increase to US$8 billion. It is hoped that the number of cases of strategic alliances, technical cooperation and technical transfers, will reach 100, he went on. Europe is the third-largest trading market for Taiwan products, behind North America and Asia.
Workers 18% of jobless
The number of Taiwan's long-term unemployed workers has reached 94,000 so far for 2002, accounting for 18.77 percent of the total jobless population, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported Thursday. The figure is a marked increase from the year-earlier level of 58,000, with "age restrictions" and "low pay" the two leading obstacles for the so-called long-term jobless workers who, according to a DGBAS definition, are those who remain jobless for more than one year. Elderly and middle-aged workers of between 45 and 64, as well as people with low educational backgrounds, are most affected, the DGBAS said, adding that 27.89 percent of the elderly and middle-aged workers are jobless, up by 5 percentage points from five years ago. While long-term jobless workers hope for an average monthly salary of NT$29,345, those who found work over the past year received only NT$26,988 on average, the DGBAS noted.
NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell against its US counterpart, losing NT$0.007 to close at NT$34.812 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$320 million, compared with the previous day's US$349 million.
Agencies
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
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