NEC Corp, Japan’s largest maker of personal computers, said it will close its liquid-crystal-display (LCD) factory in southern Japan to bolster efficiency.
The factory in Kagoshima Prefecture, which employs 370 workers to make mid-size screens for medical and industrial displays, will close by Dec. 31, the Tokyo-based company said Wednesday. Output will be moved to NEC’s more advanced plant in Akita Prefecture in northern Japan, it said.
NEC said it will cut the workforce in the unit, NEC LCD Technologies Ltd, by 50 percent to 600 employees by March next year, as part of a plan to eliminate more than 20,000 employees in the period. The company in January forecast its biggest loss in seven years as the worsening recession damps demand for displays, mobile phones and semiconductors.
Current monthly production capacity at the two plants is 218,000 panels measuring 14 inches, the statement said. That level will be maintained after the consolidation in Akita, Joseph Jasper, an NEC spokesman, said yesterday by telephone.
The overall net loss will total ¥290 billion (US$2.94 billion) in the 12 months ending March 31, compared with a ¥22.7 billion profit a year earlier, NEC said in January. Sales will fall 9 percent to ¥4.2 trillion.
Shares of NEC yesterday rose 4 percent to close at ¥232 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
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
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