Winbond borrows NT$5bn
Winbond Electronics Corp (旺宏電子) said it agreed to borrow NT$5 billion (US$153 million) from eight domestic banks to help the local chipmaker buy equipment for a new chip factory.
Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀), Ta Chong Bank (大眾銀行), Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行), First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工銀), Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) and Yuanta Commercial Bank (元大銀行) with Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) will participate in the syndicate loan, Winbond said in a statement. The terms of the loans will not be disclosed.
Winbond had a cash pile of NT$10.3 billion at the end of June. The company is building a chip factory scheduled to begin operations by the end of this year or early next year, according to its second-quarter financial statements published on Aug. 3.
Samsung, rivals' ratings cut
Samsung Electronics Co, the world's biggest memory chipmaker, and its smaller rivals had their stock investment ratings cut by UBS AG, which cited falling prices on computer memory.
Samsung and Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world's second-largest memory maker, were cut to "neutral" from "buy," UBS analyst Christian Dinwoodie wrote in a report yesterday.
Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) and ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) were cut to "sell."
Prices of dynamic random access memory chips, which act as buffers that temporarily store data in computers, will probably continue falling until next year as supply exceeds demand, Dinwoodie said.
Chunghwa inks deal
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's biggest telecom company, yesterday signed a 61.5 million euro (US$87 million) contract with Nokia Siemens Networks to upgrade its 3G network.
The project will allow the operator to provide enhanced, industry-leading 3G and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) services to subscribers and reduce associated operational costs, Nokia Siemens said in a joint statement.
Cross-strait trade grows
Bilateral trade between Taiwan and China in the seven months to July rose 14.3 percent from the same period a year earlier to US$55.54 billion on increasing economic exchanges, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said yesterday.
Trade with China accounted for 21.4 percent of Taiwan's total external trade during the period, compared with 20.1 percent a year earlier, the government agency said, citing statistics compiled by Taiwan and Hong Kong customs.
Taiwan registered a trade surplus with China of US$24.06 billion for the January-July period, up 12.7 percent from a year earlier, the bureau said.
Exports to China increased 13.8 percent year-on-year to US$39.80 billion, and imports from there were up 15.5 percent at US$15.74 billion.
Seven-month shipments to China accounted for 29.5 percent of Taiwan's total exports during the period, compared with 27.9 percent a year earlier.
Imports from China accounted for 12.7 percent of Taiwan's total imports for the period, up from 11.7 percent a year before, it added.
Plant closes until November
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) shut down its No. 2 ethylene plant in Mailiao Township (麥寮), Yunlin County, for maintenance on Wednesday.
The closure will last from 40 days to 45 days, Lin Keh-yen (林克彥), the director of the firm's president's office, said by telephone from Taipei yesterday.
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