Memorychip maker Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) announced yesterday that the company’s board had agreed to appoint former minister of economic affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) as its new chairman, replacing Frank Huang (黃崇仁).
The Hsinchu Science Park-based chipmaker said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange after the market closed that Huang, who founded the company in 1994, had offered to resign for personal reasons.
Huang’s resignation took effect immediately, but he remains the company’s chief executive officer and will still sit on the company’s board, Powerchip said.
The company has gradually shifted business focus to the contract chipmaking business from PC DRAM chips, and hopes Chen’s appointment will help the company to negotiate with credit banks and the government over loan rollovers and other issues.
Huang’s resignation announcement came as Powerchip is scheduled to see its shares delisted from the GRETAI Securities Market on Dec. 11 after the company’s book value per share fell into the red at the end of the third quarter.
Powerchip’s net value was minus-NT$1.36 per share at the end of September, falling from NT$0.28 at the end of June.
Net losses were NT$4.57 billion (US$158 million) in the third quarter, or NT$2.06 per share. Total net losses for the first nine months of the year were NT$13.17 billion or NT$5.95 per share, the company’s data showed.
Shares in Powerchip rose 4.17 percent to NT$0.25 yesterday, declining 70.93 percent so far this year, the stock exchange’s data showed.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS