The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) yesterday launched a steel industrial development platform in collaboration with China Steel Corp (中鋼) as part of its effort to help transform the nation’s steelmaking industry.
The platform will focus first on helping the industry develop advanced materials, ITRI executive vice president Alex Y.M. Peng (彭裕民) said in a statement.
China Steel is striving to develop sputtering target materials used in the production of high-end semiconductors, as it looks to sharpen its competitive edge, while helping the nation’s semiconductor industry lower its production costs, president Wang Shyi-chin (王錫欽) said.
Photo: Lin Chin-hua, Taipei Times
Taiwan is the world’s largest consumer of target materials, accounting for 22 percent of global demand, a report by international trade group SEMI said.
It is heavily reliant on imports of such materials for use in the semiconductors and optoelectronics sectors, the report said.
ITRI aims to help China Steel improve its management of water resources, which is vital to steel production, Peng said, adding that the firm would boost its use of recycled water from 23 percent to 59 percent of total water consumption by 2024.
ITRI would also help China Steel in the deployment of information and communications technologies while the company looks to improve its work environment through occupational safety and health measures, Peng added.
China Steel plans to introduce ITRI’s iRoadsage system solution to its pallet trucks, which detects all moving objects on the road and issues alerts to the driver, in a bid to reduce traffic accidents, it said.
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