Epistar adjusts sourcing
Epistar Corp (晶元光電), a supplier of LEDs used in televisions, will increase sourcing from Rubicon Technology Inc and Monocrytal PLC after Friday’s Japan earthquake halted supply of about 25 percent of its silicon wafers.
Namiki Precision Jewel Co supplies about one-quarter of its wafers and stopped manufacturing, Hsinchu-based Epistar’s chairman Lee Biing-jye (李秉傑) said in an interview with Bloomberg News yesterday. Kyocera Corp, which also supplies about one-quarter, has been unaffected, he said.
Epistar has about 40 days of supply inventory and has recently been buying more wafers to build its stockpiles, he said. Epistar’s revenue may be impacted if shortages hurt supply of components used in LCD televisions, which are the major user of its LEDs, Lee said.
No AUO supply troubles
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) has experienced no short-term impacts on its supplies after the Japan earthquake with some materials makers there already resuming production, executive vice president Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told Bloomberg News yesterday.
AUO is looking for alternative vendors, with stability of power supply being a key factor in availability of materials, Peng said.
CPC boosts processing
State-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) will increase crude processing this month as refining margins widen after the earthquake in Japan, CPC vice president Paul Chen (陳綠蔚) said by telephone yesterday.
CPC utilized about 62 percent of its refining capacity last month, Chen said. The company has a daily capacity to process 720,000 barrels of oil.
Taiwan impact limited: CEPD
Taiwan’s economy won’t be affected “that much” by the -disasters in Japan, Council for the Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) said in Taipei yesterday.
The Taiwan government has no plans to enact policies to boost the economy, while the government will continue to monitor financial markets, she said.
FSC to remove limit
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday it planned to remove the NT$10 limit on the par value of each share of foreign companies seeking primary listing on the local market.
The commission said in a statement that it would consider easing terms for international bond sales by foreign issuers.
The commission yesterday also signed an agreement to become a member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) to help protect investors and maintain fair, efficient and transparent securities and futures markets.
FSC Chairman Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) inked the pact to join the global body that has members from more than 114 different countries and regulates the world’s securities and futures markets, the commission said.
IOSCO members, usually the financial regulator in each country, pledge to cooperate in legal enforcement against misconduct and in supervision of healthy market operations, among other duties.
Chimei to ship 3m panels
Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s largest LCD panel maker, aims to ship 3 million 3D panels for a market share of about 35 percent in China this year, the -Miaoli-based company said in a statement on its Web site yesterday.
NT dollar falls on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.05 to close at NT$29.559. Turnover totaled US$1.06 billion during the trading session.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy