Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (VISC, 世界先進), which makes control chips for LCD panels, yesterday said it is evaluating the possibility of buying a factory to boost capacity in order to meet growing customer demand in the medium and long term.
That would be the biggest capacity expansion for the Hsinchu-based chipmaker since its last investment in 2007, when Vanguard purchased an 8-inch (200mm) plant from local memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電) for NT$8.3 billion (US$285 million).
Vanguard, which is 39 percent owned by the world’s top contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), had NT$9.82 billion in cash at the end of last quarter, according to the company’s financial statement.
The chipmaker’s board yesterday agreed to give the chairman the authority to assess the asset purchase, according to a company filing submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company did not specify what assets it is considering to acquire and from who.
However, two financially troubled memorychip makers, Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) and ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), have said earlier that they were seeking potential buyers for their 12-inch factories in Hsinchu and Greater Taichung respectively, as they want to use the proceeds to pay debts and strengthen their working capital.
The stock price of Vanguard rallied yesterday in Taipei trading ahead of the asset purchase announcement, rising 3.72 percent to close at NT$19.5.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
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GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by