United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) confirmed yesterday that it is looking to acquire chip plants to expand its capacity, but it declined to comment on a report that it will buy a chip fab from Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Fujitsu, which has decided to withdraw from the semiconductor manufacturing business, has reached a basic agreement with UMC to sell a chip production site in Mie Prefecture to the Taiwanese chipmaker.
The report said the Japanese company had also entered the final stage of negotiations to sell another plant, in Fukushima Prefecture, to US-based ON Semiconductor Corp.
The combined value of the two plants’ assets is estimated at ¥50 billion (US$495 million), the report said.
In response to the report, UMC said it had approached some potential sellers to purchase additional production capacity, but it would not confirm whether Fujitsu was one of them, saying it did not comment on any specific company.
UMC said its 8-inch wafer plants have been running at full capacity since the second quarter, when the global semiconductor business staged a strong rebound after inventory adjustments held back demand the previous two quarters.
The Taiwanese chipmaker said its board of directors had authorized management to seek opportunities in Asia for investing in new 8-inch or 12-inch wafer plants, to expand its operations to meet rising demand.
UMC said it was likely to acquire a stake in another semiconductor company or purchase plants to prop up its production and would make any investment public were it to be finalized.
Under the agreement between Fujitsu and UMC, the Japanese report said, the two partners would set up a ¥50 billion joint venture by the end of Fujitsu’s 2014 fiscal year ending March next year, and Fujitsu would transer the Mie plant to the new company.
UMC will initially own no more than a 30 percent stake in the joint venture. Hoping to attract more investment from other semiconductor firms, Fujitsu is planning to lower its stake in the joint venture to below 50 percent by the end of fiscal 2016.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last