CHIPMAKERS
Inotera buys equipment
DRAM chipmaker Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) yesterday said it has bought a batch of equipment from parent company Micron Technology Inc for NT$411 million (US$12.5 million), according to a company statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Inotera said it would use the equipment to produce memory chips. The chipmaker is scheduled to convert all of its production capacity to 20-nanometer chips by the second quarter of next year.
COMPONENTS
Ichia sales continue to fall
Keypad producer Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) yesterday reported that its sales last month declined by 6 percent sequentially from NT$598 million to NT$563 million, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The reduced figure represents an annual decline of 32 percent from NT$830 milllion. In the first 11 months of this year, revenue plunged by 34.29 percent to NT$6.88 billion, compared with NT$1.05 billion in the same period last year.
POWER SUPPLIES
Delta eyes efficient solutions
Power supply unit producer Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said that improving energy efficiency remains the most economical path toward reducing carbon emissions and mitigating the impacts of climate change, ahead of the company’s participation at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. The nation’s top power supply producer said that its industry-leading technologies have achieved a conversion efficiency of 98.7 percent for its photovoltaic inverters and 97.5 percent for telecom power supplies. Between 2010 and last year, the company’s power management products have yielded 14.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to about 7.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, it said. The company is to introduce its plans to integrate a wide portfolio of energy-efficient solutions and expertise in constructing green buildings in Paris next week.
LIFE INSURERS
Shin Kong to buy UK asset
Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), the main subsidiary and biggest profit source of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), said it plans to buy an office building in London for £135.15 million (US$203.73 million), the company said in a statement released on Monday. This is the first overseas property investment made by the insurance company, it said. The insurer is to purchase 40 Gracechurch, a seven-story building with 5,871m2 of floor space, which it expects to yield investment returns of more than 4 percent annually. The purchase has been approved by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
ELECTRONICS
BungBungame sponsors 101
Taipei 101 yesterday announced that local technology company BungBungame Inc (戲智科技) has agreed to sponsor the skyscraper’s annual fireworks show this year. The announcement came after a search that started in June for a suitable sponsor willing to put up NT$45 million to cover the cost of the skyscraper’s 11th annual fireworks show to welcome in the new year. Themed “Nature is Future,” the display is being designed to show images of fish and plants to raise environmental awareness. At 238 seconds, it is to be the longest performance since the skyscraper’s formal inauguration on Dec. 31, 2004, according to the building’s administration. BungBungame was established in 2008 as a software developer and has created several apps for devices across the Android, iOS and Windows platforms.
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