Intel Corp yesterday held a groundbreaking ceremony for its first chip factory in China, expanding its presence in the booming Chinese computer industry and boosting Beijing's campaign to lure foreign high-tech investment.
The US$2.5 billion facility, one of the biggest single foreign investments in China, will be Intel's first silicon-wafer fabrication plant in Asia and its eighth worldwide. It is set to open in 2010 with a work force of 1,200.
The new factory, dubbed "Fab 68," will produce chipsets, which connect microprocessors to other computer components. Intel says it chose not to equip the plant with its most advanced processes because of US restrictions on high-tech exports.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Intel chairman Craig Barrett, a deputy chairman of the Chinese Cabinet's main planning agency and the mayor of this northeastern port city, which is a growing center for the software and computer industries.
"China is obviously such a booming economy. We very much felt like it was important to be near our customers," said Kirby Jefferson, the Dalian plant's general manager, in an interview ahead of the ceremony.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel says China already is its second-largest market after the US and is expected to be the world's biggest information technology market by 2010.
Foreign investment in China's computer and other high-tech industries is growing as companies set up factories and research centers. But the communist government wants more and offers tax breaks and other incentives to lure investors.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
"What we hope is that growth enterprises and emerging companies will base more of their research and development centers in China," Wen said on Thursday in Dalian at the World Economic Forum, a gathering of Chinese and foreign business leaders.
The Intel investment also gives a boost to government efforts to develop China's northeast, a former heartland for state industry that has suffered a steep decline.
Intel picked China because of its market and growing pool of skilled workers, rather than for the low labor costs that attract other manufacturers, Jefferson said. He said because of the huge investment in equipment for chip production, labor was only a small fraction of total costs.
"It's really that we're coming here simply because of the market," Jefferson said.
Intel also has "wafer fabs" in the US, Ireland and Israel. It has assembly and test facilities in Costa Rica, Malaysia and the Philippines. In China, the company has factories in Shanghai and Chengdu making memory chips, microprocessors and other products, and research centers in Beijing and Shanghai.
The company is still deciding which level of technology to use in Dalian, Jefferson said. He said it would be either a 65nm or a 90nm process. That is considered to be one to two generations behind Intel's most advanced processes, which can make circuits 45nm wide.
Intel says it chose not to apply for a US license to transfer its most advanced process to China because of restrictions on high-tech exports to countries where Washington has security concerns.
But Intel plans to upgrade the Dalian facility as US regulations change, Jefferson 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
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