Canadian phone-equipment maker Nortel’s sudden bankruptcy filing on Wednesday sent ripples through local contract manufacturers yesterday.
Wistron Co (緯創) released a statement on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday to announce a possible loss of NT$200 million (US$5.99 million), or NT$0.13 per share, related to Nortel Networks Corp’s collapse.
Wistron said it had been in business with Nortel for many years, and it was currently in talks with Nortel to collect due payments.
Since Wistron’s main product focus lies in personal computers, its stock only slid NT$0.70 or 2.85 percent to close at NT$23.85.
Nortel is seeking bankruptcy protection in Canadian, US and UK courts, the company announced on Wednesday. The company also saw revenues drop due to fierce competition in Internet-related equipment and traditional telecom systems.
In Taiwan, several suppliers of telecom components to the company with varying exposures saw their stocks decline yesterday.
Alpha Networks Inc (明泰科技) and Accton Technology Corp (智邦科技), which focus on the manufacturing of wireless adaptors/routers and WiMAX customer premises equipment, dropped NT$0.43 and NT$0.38 yesterday to close at NT$16.05 and NT$7.35, respectively.
While D-Link Corp (友訊科技) isn’t a direct supplier to Nortel, its stock suffered a 6 percent drop on the day to NT$18.90 due to its 38 percent ownership in Alpha Networks.
Hitron Technologies Inc (仲琦科技) closed down limit to NT$6.15.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of