Hoya Corp opens new plant
Japan-based Hoya Corp, the world's largest supplier of optical glass to the semiconductor industry, on Monday inaugurated a new plant in the Hsinchu Science Industrial Park (新竹科學園區) to make photomasks, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Photomasks are glass plates containing patterns of a microchip's circuitry. This component is used to produce liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Hoya will initially invest NT$200 million in making photomasks to meet the increasing demand from local LCD manufacturers, the ministry said in a statement. The investment will reach NT$1.5 billion in the next few years, the statement added. As local LCD makers are planning to build fifth-generation flat panel factories, Hoya will also produce photomasks used for large-sized thin-film transistor LCDs (TFT-LCD) in the second half of next year, the statement said.
RBS target budget hotels
The popular Retail Booking System (RBS) called a news conference yesterday in Taipei to attract domestic economy and budget hotels to its worldwide Internet booking service. The system provides backpackers with greater access to more economic options for online hotel bookings, an RBS executive said. Almost all five-star hotels in Taiwan are part of the RBS, and the system now is hoping to seek small and medium-sized hotels to offer foreign customers more short-term accommodation on the Internet, the RBS official said. Lai Seh-jen (賴瑟珍), deputy director-general of the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, said the RBS offers an effective channel for Taiwan's economy hotels and youth hostels to sharpen their international distribution, particularly among the many young and individual backpackers who are the prevailing force in the global tourism market.
China Life to support affiliate
China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) said it will support an attempt by affiliate KGI Securities Co (中信證券) to secure seats on the board of China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing a China Life official. The Taiwanese insurer also urged China Development unit China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發銀行) not to use its 7.1 percent stake in the parent to support management, the report said. The report didn't say how many seats KGI is seeking. KGI holds more than 200 million shares, or 2 percent, in China Development, the newspaper said. China Development, Taiwan's fifth-largest financial services company by market value, is scheduled to hold a shareholders meeting on April 5 to elect a new board. Investors must acquire shares by Feb. 6 to vote. The government plans to ban financial holding companies from using cross-shareholdings with units to keep control of the parent, Finance Minister Lin Chuan (林全) said on Thursday.
Rumors of big buying
Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), Taiwan's third-largest financial company by market value, said it wants to buy International Investment Trust Co (國際投信), an asset-management company, a Chinese-language newspaper said on Friday. The paper said Mega will pay cash for closely held International Investment Trust.
NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.007 to close at NT$34.052 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$413 million.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
RSS