Wang Yung-tsai (王永在), cofounder of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團), passed away at 11:15am yesterday with family members around him, the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate announced.
Wang, who died aged 93, is a younger brother of Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), the other founder of the group.
The younger Wang was called “the grand architect” of the group’s production site in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) — which encompasses the nation’s sixth naphtha cracker, an oil factory, a power plant and a harbor — because he supervised its construction, which started in 1994, the group said.
Photo: CNA
The production site generates sales of NT$1.5 trillion (US$48.54 billion) a year, an official of the group, who declined to be named, told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Last year, the group, which employs about 100,000 workers, reported revenue of NT$2.45 trillion and said it expected the figure would increase to NT$2.6 trillion this year.
Wang Yung-tsai also helped the group to develop its electronic materials business, which includes Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) — the nation’s biggest DRAM chipmaker — and Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) — which is a joint venture between Micron Technology Inc of the US and Taoyuan-based Nanya Technology.
The younger Wang was in charge of the group after his brother retired in 2002. He retired himself as vice chairman of the group in 2006, handing over the company to seven people, including group chairman William Wong (王文淵), who is Wang Yung-tsai’s son; vice chairperson Susan Wang (王瑞華), who is Wang Yung-ching’s daughter; Wilfred Wang (王文潮), William Wong’s younger brother; and Sandy Wang (王瑞瑜), Susan Wang’s younger sister.
Before Formosa Plastics Group was founded in 1954, Wang Yung-tsai and his elder brother operated rice and lumber businesses together.
“Currently the group has many important ongoing projects,” William Wong said in an e-mail yesterday.”
“We hope that everyone in the group will learn the simple and diligent style and courage of the group’s two founders to accomplish the goals,” Wong said.
Wang Yung-tsai was five years younger than Wang Yung-ching, who passed away in 2008.
Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) and Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Bill Cho (卓士昭) expressed gratitude to Wang Yung-tsai for his contribution to the nation’s economy.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is