Texas Instruments Inc, the largest maker of chips that power mobile phones, and rival Qualcomm Inc, said they aim to award their first contracts to semiconductor manufacturers in China as early as next year.
Texas Instruments is preparing to start production with Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (
The chipmakers want their production to be closer to China's market of 315 million mobile phone users, the world's largest, and the plants of customers including Nokia Oyj. Semiconductor Manufacturing, founded by a former vice president of Texas Instruments, is banking on its location to grab business from contract manufacturers in Taiwan and Singapore.
Chipmakers use foundries to limit the risk of investing in semiconductor plants that can cost more than US$3 billion and take years to build. Manufacturers were reluctant to increase investment after a three-year industry slump that started in 2000.
Texas and Qualcomm count Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
"Sometimes, people joke that the TI in Texas Instruments stands for training institute," Rasor said yesterday at the 3G Congress & Exhibition 2004 in Hong Kong. "It's great to leverage their knowledge of Texas Instruments and our knowledge of them." Texas hopes to start having its chips made in China by early next year, he said.
Qualcomm, unlike Texas Instruments, has no chip plants of its own and is seeking to increase its chip suppliers, so-called semiconductor foundries.
"At some point, we hope we will be able to use foundries in China," Qualcomm's Jacobs told reporters earlier this week.
``Those may include current suppliers that are starting production in China.''
Handset manufacturers such as Nokia, the world's biggest, have been moving more production to China to cut manufacturing costs. Siemens AG, the world's fourth-largest maker of mobile phones, said in May it will invest 1 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) in China in the next few years.
Worldwide sales of mobile phones will rise 18 percent this year as Nokia boosted shipments by cutting prices, market researcher ISuppli Corp said. Global handset sales will rise to 675 million units this year, compared with an earlier forecast of 670 million, El Segundo, California-based ISuppli said.
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
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FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six