TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co,
TSMC and its next largest rival, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), earned gross margins of as much as 50 percent in their most profitable years. Those margins will fall as Dongbu Group of Korea, First Silicon (Malaysia) Sdn and Silterra (Malaysia) Sdn start operations this year and Hynix Semiconductor Inc shifts to making chips for other companies as its main memory-chip business remains unprofitable.
"First Silicon and Silterra will put tremendous pricing pressure on the market," Bill McClean, the president of IC Insights, said in an interview. "Gross margins will slide down to the 40 percent range." Contract chipmakers will account for about 28 percent of total worldwide chip sales by 2004, doubling from 14 percent this year, McClean said. Global chip sales this year will reach US$139.2 billion, according to the research company's estimates.
TSMC said in a conference call with analysts on July 26 pricing pressure increased in areas that use its older technology to make silicon wafers.
"We are facing some difficulty at the 0.35-micron level," said Rick Tsai (
The three-largest companies in the business, TSMC, UMC, and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (特許半導體) of Singapore, will account for about three-quarters of contract chip production by 2005, slipping from their anticipated 84 percent share this year, though Chartered will probably quickly fade to fourth or fifth place McClean said.
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CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
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Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique