Yageo Corp (國巨) plans to transfer NT$10 billion (US$332.37 million) from abroad to boost capacity and research and development (R&D) for high-end passive components used in automobile and industrial devices.
The move demonstrates Yageo’s commitment to increasing its investments in Taiwan, as the nation plays an important role in its manufacturing of niche products and R&D efforts, the Kaohsiung-based company said yesterday.
Yageo, the world’s third-largest passive components maker, generated about half of its total production and 90 percent of its R&D at its Kaohsiung operations and R&D center, it said in a statement.
“To meet growing demand from 5G technology and automotive electronics, the company has launched a series of investments in Taiwan in the past few years,” Yageo said.
The investments would “help the company fuel growth momentum in the long run.”
Passive components used in industrial devices and automobiles contributed 31 percent and 15 percent respectively to Yageo’s total revenue of NT$31.29 billion in the first three quarters of last year.
Last month, the company signed a letter of intent with the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) to build a new production line in Kaohsiung’s Ciaotou District (橋頭).
Yageo plans to hire 900 workers for the Ciaotou line and recruit 200 engineers to expand its R&D team, it has said.
The company earlier last year also secured a government loan of NT$16.5 billion to fund its domestic investment and acquired land in Kaohsiung’s industrial zone to build a new factory.
To solve supply constraints, Yageo said it has boosted its equipment utilization rate for multilayer ceramic capacitor and chip resistors to about 50 percent, from as low as 25 percent in October last year.
However, labor shortages in China remain an obstacle to boosting utilization rate in the short term, the company said.
Separately, Yageo’s board of directors has approved offering 80 million new common shares in the form of global depositary receipts (GDRs), as the company aims to raise funds to replenish operating capital, repay debts and purchase raw materials, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
The GDR offering is to boost the firm’s share capital to 509.05 million shares from 429.05 million, but would dilute its earnings per share by 18 percent, the company 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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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