Macronix sees rise in demand
Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), Taiwan’s largest producer of the NOR flash memory chips used for operating systems in mobile phones, said demand was outstripping supply. Shares climbed to a seven-week high.
“There’s an increase in demand this year because customers are placing more orders amid a recovering economy,” Michelle Chang (張宜如), a corporate relations official at the Hsinchu-based company, said by telephone yesterday. She declined to comment on Macronix’s chip prices or give specific demand figures.
Company shares rose 1.4 percent to close at NT$18 (US$0.56) in Taipei. The stock climbed by as much as 3.7 percent to NT$18.40, the highest in more than two years. The benchmark TAIEX, meanwhile, dropped 1.46 percent yesterday.
Companies turned to the NOR flash market to reduce their reliance on computer memory chips after a glut resulted in losses, said Iling Chen, an analyst at E. Sun Securities Co (玉山證券).
Elpida Memory Inc, Japan’s largest maker of memory to store data in computers, said earlier this month it could develop semiconductors for use in mobile phones by buying flash-chip technology assets. Last month, Micron Technologies Inc, the biggest US producer of computer memory, agreed to buy flash-chip maker Numonyx Holdings BV.
“Such a demand and supply imbalance will continue for at least the first half of this year,” Chen, who gave Macronix shares a “buy,” said by telephone in Taipei yesterday. “The company will further benefit from more price gains.”
Macronix International also intends to sell as much as 1.5 billion new shares to help boost operating capital, the company said in an exchange filing yesterday. The chipmaker could sell the shares in Taiwan or in the form of global depositary receipts overseas or convertible bonds, it said.
ASM to increase workforce
ASM Pacific Technology Ltd, the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor-wiring machines, could add at least 1,000 workers by the end of the third quarter and will consider mergers, chief executive Lee Wai Kwong said.
Hong Kong-based ASM, which is majority-owned by ASM International NV, Europe’s second-largest chip equipment maker, reported last month a 14-fold increase in fourth-quarter profit as chipmakers expand amid the global rebound.
“We have never seen this before, it seems to be every segment of this industry is doing well,” Lee said in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday. “People in the industry are expecting a few years of good times ahead of us.”
The company has added about 1,000 employees since the third quarter of last year, Lee said. ASM had 10,700 workers at the end of last year, data showed.
ASM fell 2.2 percent to close at HK$71.90 (US$9.27) in Hong Kong trading, compared with a 0.6 percent drop in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. The stock has retreated 2.6 percent this year.
Precision denies Amtran rumor
Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday denied rumors it had plans to acquire a 40 percent stake in TV manufacturer Amtran Technology Co Ltd (瑞軒科技) at between NT$42 and NT$45 per share, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
“The speculation is groundless,” it said.
NT dollar up slightly
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rose NT$0.02 to close at NT$31.82 against the greenback on turnover of US$640 million.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained