Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (
"We've had no such discussions," said Powerchip president Michael Tsai (
"No way," said Charles Kau (
Powerchip plans to borrow NT$8 billion (US$232 million) to buy equipment for its latest plant, which should help cut costs by a third, Tsai said. Nanya has a similar plan, according to Kau.
Tsai said he expects Infineon Technologies AG to merge with ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), a venture of Europe's second-largest chipmaker and Taiwan's Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽電子). Mosel this month said it held talks with Infineon and others in Taiwan about merging.
Powerchip, which sells most of its output to Mitsubishi Electric Corp of Japan, has been "working well" with its partner, Tsai said. He denied a report that cited him as saying Taiwan should have a single supplier of standard chips rather than five.
"To say there should be only one memory-chip maker in Taiwan is too bold," Tsai said, adding trade journal EE Times misquoted him in an interview.
Nanya Technology, the only Taiwanese memory-chip maker whose shares have recovered from a plunge that followed the Sept. 11 attacks, will survive, Tsai said. Nanya said this week a new high-speed chip is helping boost sales.
Powerchip turned to a loss of NT$4 billion (US$116 million) in the three months to Sept. 30, compared with a profit of NT$2.5 billion a year earlier. Third-quarter sales tumbled to NT$1.7 billion from NT$6.8 billion a year ago.
Taiwan's memory-chip makers posted third-quarter losses that totaled NT$20 billion. Mosel's NT$6.2 billion loss in the period was the largest of the five Taiwan companies.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
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