The boards of Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), two of the four major units of the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團), have decided to grant a loan of NT$7.4 billion (US$247 million) each to Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest PC DRAM chipmaker, a local newspaper reported.
FOLLOWING SUIT
The other two major FPG units, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) and Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), have also agreed to follow suit by each granting similar loans to Nanya Technology, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported.
Overall, Nanya Technology will receive a total of NT$29.6 billion in loans from its affiliated companies under the same group.
The loan will temporarily relieve Nanya Technology from risking falling into negative equity value and being delisted from the local stock exchange, the paper said.
LEADERSHIP SHUFFLE
While getting monetary assistance from the group, Nanya Technology also announced changes to its top leadership. The board of the company approved the appointment of Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科) chairman Charles Kau (高啟全) to serve as president, replacing Jih Lien (連日昌).
INOTERA RUMOR
Also on Monday, the board of Formosa Petrochemical approved to lend NT$4.8 billion to Inotera Memories, breaking up the rumor that the Formosa group had given up on the DRAM industry.
Inotera Memories is a joint venture between Nanya Technology and the US-based Micron Technology Inc.
The company last week said executive vice president Scott Meikle would serve as president, effective from Sept. 1, to take charge of the company’s daily operation, replacing Kau.
FINANCIAL REPORTS
In related news, the boards of Formosa Plastics and Formosa Petrochemical on Monday also signed off on their management’s financial reports for the first half of the year.
Formosa Plastics posted revenues of NT$88.77 billion and a net income of NT$3.66 billion, with earnings per share of NT$0.6.
Formosa Petrochemical’s revenue and net income were NT$435.63 billion and NT$8.81 billion respectively, with EPS of NT$0.93.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”