SHIPPING
Chairman tipped to change
Former Evergreen Group (長榮集團) vice chairman Bronson Hsieh (謝志堅) is expected to become the new chairman of Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), replacing Frank Lu (盧峰海), local media reported yesterday. Yang Ming Marine Transport, the nation’s second-largest container shipper in terms of fleet size, is likely to hold a board meeting today to approve Hsieh’s appointment, reports said, citing government sources. Yang Ming Marine Transport reported a net loss of NT$7.72 billion (US$239.6) last year, or NT$2.24 in losses per share, with total sales of NT$127.56 billion. Hsieh worked at Evergreen Group for more than 40 years before stepping down from his position earlier this year.
FOOD
UPE names new president
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (UPE, 統一企業), one of Taiwan’s leading food makers, yesterday elected the head of its Chinese subsidiary to serve as its president in a potential move to take over the reins from chairman Alex Lo (羅智先). The board of directors yesterday elected Hou Jung-lung (侯榮隆), president of Uni-President China Holding Co (UPC, 統一中控), to serve as the company’s new president with immediate effect, UPE said in a statement. Hou, 52, has been UPC's president since 2001.
HEALTH
Former premier to head IBMI
The government-funded Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry (IBMI, 生技醫療產業策進會) yesterday announced it had appointed former premier Simon Chang (張善政) as its new chairman, replacing Chen Wei-jao (陳維昭). Chang is to have a four-year tenure as IBMI chairman. The non-profit organization also elected National Taiwan University president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) as vice chairman, along with the selection of 27 new directors and nine new supervisors. IBMI was established in 1988 by former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who served as chairman for its first eight years.
SOLAR WAFERS
GW dividend approved
GlobalWafers Co Ltd (GW, 環球晶圓) yesterday obtained shareholders’ approval to distribute a cash dividend of NT$5 per share based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$5.8 per share. GlobalWafers, a subsidiary of solar wafer maker Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (中美矽晶), said it has maintained steady growth in sales since the fourth quarter of last year thanks to better-than-expected demand for small and medium-sized wafers. However, cumulative sales dropped 7.44 percent to NT$6.21 billion for the first five months of this year from the same period last year, company data showed.
PANELMAKERS
CPT heads apologize
Flat-panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (CPT, 中華映管) chairman Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山) and president Lin Sheng-chang (林盛昌) yesterday apologized to shareholders over years of losses and said that high-ranking executives had taken a voluntary salary cut of between 10 and 20 percent from last month. To boost its efforts to turn the results around, the company said it would shift its focus to niche products, such as those used in the automotive items and industrial control segments, as well as to dispose of unprofitable affiliates and assets.
CEMENT
TCC remains cautious
Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥), the nation’s biggest cement maker, yesterday said it remains cautious about its business outlook for the near term after reporting a sharp decline in eanings per share of NT$1.56 for last year from NT$2.93 a year earlier. While the company secured shareholders’ approval to issue a cash dividend of NT$1.33 per share, Taiwan Cement dismissed market rumors that it would seek a merger with Asia Cement Corp (亞洲水泥) to help it compete in China.
TECH TITAN: Pandemic-era demand for semiconductors turbocharged the nation’s GDP per capita to surpass South Korea’s, but it still remains half that of Singapore Taiwan is set to surpass South Korea this year in terms of wealth for the first time in more than two decades, marking a shift in Asia’s economic ranks made possible by the ascent of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). According to the latest forecasts released on Thursday by the central bank, Taiwan’s GDP is expected to expand 4.55 percent this year, a further upward revision from the 4.45 percent estimate made by the statistics bureau last month. The growth trajectory puts Taiwan on track to exceed South Korea’s GDP per capita — a key measure of living standards — a
Samsung Electronics Co shares jumped 4.47 percent yesterday after reports it has won approval from Nvidia Corp for the use of advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which marks a breakthrough for the South Korean technology leader. The stock closed at 83,500 won in Seoul, the highest since July 31 last year. Yesterday’s gain comes after local media, including the Korea Economic Daily, reported that Samsung’s 12-layer HBM3E product recently passed Nvidia’s qualification tests. That clears the components for use in the artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators essential to the training of AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek (深度求索), and finally allows Samsung
READY TO HELP: Should TSMC require assistance, the government would fully cooperate in helping to speed up the establishment of the Chiayi plant, an official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its investment plans in Taiwan are “unchanged” amid speculation that the chipmaker might have suspended construction work on its second chip packaging plant in Chiayi County and plans to move equipment arranged for the plant to the US. The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported earlier yesterday that TSMC had halted the construction of the chip packaging plant, which was scheduled to be completed next year and begin mass production in 2028. TSMC did not directly address whether construction of the plant had halted, but said its investment plans in Taiwan remain “unchanged.” The chipmaker started
‘COMPLEMENTARY’: The company unveiled its new Dimensity 9500 smartphone chip, which would power Vivo’s X300 series, set to launch in Taiwan in November MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s largest handset chip designer, yesterday said its strategic collaboration with Nvidia Corp is on track and expected to bear fruit within two to three years, easing concerns over Nvidia’s newly announced partnership with Intel Corp to develop PC chips. MediaTek shares fell 2.43 percent to NT$1,405, underperforming the TAIEX’s 1.18 percent gain, as investors worried that Nvidia’s work with Intel might overshadow its joint PC-chip projects with MediaTek based on Arm Holdings PLC’s architecture. “We are quite complementary to one another in terms of product and technology,” MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told reporters during the launch
RSS