Xilinx to diversify risks
Xilinx Inc, one of the world's leading programmable-logic device makers, said it has no near-term adjustment on its partnership with either United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) or Toshiba Corp, the company said in a statement released yesterday.
The US company's remark came after a recent article published in Asahi Shimbun of Japan that Xilinx plans to expand its strategic manufacturing relationship with Toshiba to around 30 percent of all Xilinx products.
"While it is an accurate statement that Xilinx plans to diversify risk in the future by having 70 percent of its products manufactured by a primary foundry partner and 30 percent by a secondary partner, the company has not announced any near-term plan to expand or change its current manufacturing agreements with either Toshiba or UMC, or to shift manufacturing allocation from its primary foundry partner UMC," the company said in the statement. Xilinx also explained that it reached an agreement with Toshiba in October last year that covers new product manufacturing on a 90nm process, while its long-term partnership with UMC encompasses multiple products and process nodes.
Minister: Don't hike oil prices
A series of explosions in London Thursday will unavoidably affect international oil prices, but now is not the right time for the Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) to hike prices in the domestic market, Economic Affairs Minister Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said yesterday. Ho made the remarks while answering questions from reporters after taking part in an academic seminar.
Although the CPC has the power to decide on its own whether to increase prices to reflect rising costs due to skyrocketing world oil prices, Ho said she hopes that the CPC will refrain from hiking its prices at a time when global oil prices remain unstable, noting that the state-run company is responsible for stabilizing oil prices in the domestic market. Record high oil prices in the global market in recent weeks have stirred up grave public concerns that the CPC might hike prices at home.
The Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs forecast that oil prices will reach an average of US$60-US$70 per barrel this month, saying that this will put the pressure on for price hikes in Taiwan.
Hon Hai sales surge
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the nation's biggest electronics company, said last month's sales rose 55 percent from a year earlier. Revenue surged to NT$47.2 billion (US$1.47 billion) from NT$30.5 billion in June 2004, the Taipei-based company said yesterday in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Sales rose from NT$44.5 billion in May.
AU Optronics sells 30m ADRs
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world's third- largest maker of flat-panel displays used in computers and televisions, said it filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 30 million American Depositary Receipts.
Each ADR will represent 10 common shares of AU Optronics. Goldman Sachs International is expected to be the lead underwriter for the offering, AU Optronics said in a statement today.
NT dollar continues to fall
The NT dollar continued weakening against the US dollar on outflows of foreign funds and steep oil prices, dealers said. The local currency declined NT$0.045 to close at NT$32.115 against the greenback on the Taipei foreign exchange market. The local currency has dropped 1.35 percent over the week against the greenback, after it finished at NT$31.687 a week ago. Turnover was US$724 million, from US$1.07 billion the previous day.
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
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
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