■ New TFT-LCD process unveiled
A breakthrough in TFT-LCD manufacturing technology was announced yesterday by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) in Hsinchu. The technology, called "plasma processing and system technology for LC alignment," is particularly suitable for the manufacturing of large panels, according to Lee Chin-yang (李金揚), a researcher at ITRI's Mechanical Industry Research Laboratories and director of the program. It will enable the production of panels with resolutions so high that they can be used in medical equipment, Lee said. Furthermore, the manufacturing process does not generate dust or static, which can undermine the quality of the product. Rather, it will shorten the manufacturing process, enhance yields and thereby save on production costs, he said. In order to develop the new technology, the project has has already yielded two patents, with another six patents under application, he added.
■ Lenders invited
Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and nine other arrangers of a record loan for Powerchip Semiconduc-tor Corp (力晶半導體) are inviting lenders to help provide NT$30 billion (US$926 million), a banker involved in the deal said. The loan has a five-year NT$4 billion tranche and a seven-year NT$26 billion tranche, the banker said. "We are going with a syndicated loan to diversify our funding source. Raising funds from selling shares or convertible bonds may dilute our shares," Eric Tang (譚仲民), a spokesman at Powerchip, said in an interview. "Our capital expenditure is more than last year, which is between NT$50 billion to NT$55 billion." Proceeds will help pay for NT$60 billion in equipment for a plant that Powerchip bought from Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), a maker of chips for game consoles. Powerchip paid NT$5.3 billion for the factory, which it expects to eventually produce 35,000 wafers per month, the company said in a statement on Jan. 18.
■ Imported cars selling well
Despite a decline in Taiwan's car market, sales of imported cars remained brisk in March, according to tallies released yesterday. A total of 6,116 imported cars were sold in the Taiwanese market during March, more than double the figure recorded in the previous month. The year-on-year fall in total car sales expanded from 17.8 percent in February to 30 percent in March. The top six imported car brands were Volkswagen, Toyota, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Suzuki and Mazda. While the number of Mercedes Benz E-Classes and Mercedes Benz S-Classes sold in March totalled 518, a total of 813 Volks-wagen Golfs and Volkswagen Passats were sold during the same period. In March, 1,084 Volkswagen cars were sold, up 34 percent from the same time last year. The brand seized a 17.7 percent share of the Taiwan market and remained the most popular imported car brand in the country.
■ Airport passengers down
The number of passengers traveling through Taiwan's airports totalled 6.93 million for the first two months of this year, down 0.7 percent from a year-earlier level, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Tuesday. Among them, the number of passengers on international flights accounted for 3.73 million, marking an 8 percent year-on-year increase. However, domestic flight passengers fell 10.9 percent compared with the same period last year, totaling 2.79 million passengers. The number of transit passengers accounted for 410,000, up 4.6 percent from a year-earlier level. Meanwhile, the DGBAS said there were 27 million travelers on Taiwan's railways and 58 million Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) passengers during the same period.
RSS