United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s second-largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said it planned to buy a batch of advanced equipment from customer Texas Instruments Inc (TI) for NT$1.29 billion (US$40.1 million) in order to boost production capacity to meet customer demand.
UMC said customer demand has greatly exceeded what it could supply on the back of faster-than-expected recovery in the global economy, which has led to rising electronics spending from consumers and corporations.
UMC chief executive Sun Shih-wei (孫世偉) said in a press release that the company would obtain the leading-edge 300mm fab equipment at a lower cost and with faster delivery times, compared with placing orders for new equipment, thanks to its strong relationship with TI.
“These significant advantages will help us better address our customers’ advanced production needs as demand for our foundry services continues to be strong,” Sun said.
“UMC is an important foundry partner to us and we are pleased that we can support them and work closely with them in adding new capacity for customers,” TI senior vice president Kevin Ritchie said in the joint statement.
UMC chief financial executive Liu Chi-tung (劉啓東) said by telephone yesterday the company would make no changes on its new equipment spending, which is between US$1.2 billion and US$1.5 billion this year.
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
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
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