Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光半導體), the world's second-largest chip packager, said yesterday that its prices are rising on scarcity of metals that it uses as raw materials.
The Kaohsiung-based company will pass on to customers cost increases for metals such as copper, nickel and gold, spokesman Freddie Liu (
The company's plan to transfer the cost burden to customers was first reported yesterday by a Chinese-language newspaper. Advanced counts among its larger customers Motorola Inc, Qualcomm Inc, Agilent Technologies and Conexant Systems Inc.
The company expects to maintain its profit margin because a unit that trades and processes metals accounts for about 60 percent of its material supplies.
Advanced Semiconductor will raise prices on a "case-by-case" basis and can't estimate how much average prices will rise, Liu said.
Semiconductor packagers cut chips from silicon wafers, attach metal wires to the chips and encase the assembly in insulating materials such as plastic.
Metal prices have surged on strong demand from China. Copper prices rose 0.2 percent to an eight-year high of US$1.401 a pound in electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The May futures contract soared 3.9 percent in New York on Monday.
Gold may average 13 percent higher, or about US$410 an ounce this year, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said. Gold futures rose as much as 0.6 percent to US$401.90 an ounce in electronic trading on Comex. The April contract was trading at US$400.7 at 11am in Hong Kong.
Nickel prices, which this year rose to a 15-year record, may lead gains in metal prices this year as soaring demand sends inventories to a record low, the Australian government's commodity forecaster said yesterday.
The shares of Advanced Semiconductor, the nation's largest chip packager, rose NT$0.90, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$38.80 on the TAIEX. The shares have gained 11 percent since Jan. 1 compared with an 18 percent gain for the index.
Demand for chip packaging has soared after the semiconductor industry rebounded from a three-year slump. The company last month posted a third straight quarter of profit..
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last