MEMORY CHIPS
NAND flash value to grow
The output value of flash memory chips (NAND flash) will rebound this year after posting negative annual growth last year, market researcher TrendForce said. The value of flash memory chip production is expected to increase 27.2 percent annually to US$25.73 billion this year, after contracting 6.7 percent last year, TrendForce said in a note. The sector’s growth will be fueled by rising demand driven by significant growth in global shipments of smartphones, the researcher said, forecasting that about 935 million smartphones would be shipped worldwide this year, a 38 percent increase from a year ago.
PANELS
Chunghwa sales increase
Flat-panel producer Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) yesterday reported its consolidated sales grew 24.7 percent to NT$5.64 billion (US$188.66 million) last month from April, a rise of 54.5 percent from the same month last year. Combined sales for the first five months of the year increased 18.9 percent to NT$22.76 billion, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
SMARTPHONES
HTC names new VP
Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday announced that it has named Lorain Wong (黃文采) as its vice president of global public relations, and corporate and internal communications. Wong is to replace Jason Gordon, who left the company last month.
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
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
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