TSMC board passes capex plan
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s top contract chipmaker, yesterday said its board of directors has approved a capital appropriation of US$3.05 billion, mainly for expansion of advanced capacity.
The board also approved a proposal to inject US$2 billion into wholly owned subsidiary TSMC Global Ltd to reduce its foreign-exchange hedging costs.
In addition, the board gave the go-ahead to the promotion of general counsel Sylvia Fan (方淑華) and director of human resources Connie Ma (馬慧凡) as company vice presidents.
Acer unveils newest laptop
PC vendor Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday unveiled the world’s first Chromebook laptop powered by a mobile chipset from Nvidia Corp to expand its line of Web-centric computers.
The Acer Chromebook 13 will start shipping later this month and will be available in European, North American and Asia-Pacific markets with a starting price of US$279, the company said in a press release.
The company posted its latest sales results on Monday, with consolidated revenue declining 31.29 percent sequentially to NT$25.11 billion (US$835.3 million) last month due to inventory adjustment. On an annual basis, consolidated sales last month were down 12.05 percent. Cumulative sales in the first seven months of the year totaled NT$183.19 billion, down 12.71 percent from a year earlier, the company said.
Formosa Plastics to sell shares
Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC, 台塑), the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride, said on Monday that it plans to sell about 42.5 million shares of Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC, 台塑化) by the end of this year.
Based on Formosa Petrochemical’s closing price of NT$73.7 on Monday in Taipei, Formosa Plastics would generate an income of NT$3.13 billion from selling its holding in the nation’s only listed oil refiner.
The company’s announcement followed those made by Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台化), which produces aromatics and styrenics, and Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the nation’s largest plastics maker. Together, they plan to sell a total of 1.5 percent of Formosa Petrochemical’s shares by the end of this year, reducing their shareholding in the company to about 75 percent.
LCY stock stabilizing: dealers
Shares of LCY Chemical Corp (李長榮化學) showed signs of stabilizing yesterday after plunging for seven straight sessions because of its potential liability for the gas pipeline explosions in Greater Kaohsiung on July 31 and Aug. 1.
The stock fell 0.66 percent to close at NT$15.05 in Taipei trading. Before yesterday, it had fallen by the maximum daily limit of 7 percent for seven consecutive sessions, driving the stock’s value down almost 40 percent since the blasts.
The stock is likely to consolidate until the chemical company’s legal and financial responsibilities from the blasts become clearer, dealers said.
Ministry picks TAITRA head
The Ministry of Economic Affairs on Monday appointed Francis Liang (梁國新), an adviser to the Cabinet, to serve as chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), replacing Wang Chih-kang (王志剛), who has led the trade promotion body for the past six years.
The appointment of the 63-year-old Liang, a former deputy minister of economic affairs, will be discussed at TAITRA’s next board meeting, the ministry said in a statement.
Wang, 72, “has completed his mission,” the statement said, praising him for lifting the image of Taiwanese products.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
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