■ CPC to revamp complex
The state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) will invest NT$42.59 billion (US$1.25 billion) to revamp one of its naphtha cracker complexes, the company said yesterday. The Council for Economic Planning and Development has given its approval, the CPC said. The investment funds will be used to expand the naphtha cracker complex in Linyuan, southern Taiwan, over a period of six years. With a capacity of one million tonnes of ethylene per year, the new cracker is scheduled to commence production in 2011.
■ Aplix, iaSolution merge
Japan's Aplix Corp, the world's leading Java technology platform service provider for mobile phones, said yesterday it had merged with Taiwan's iaSolution Inc (曜碩) for NT$2.4 billion (US$70.6 million). The latter company, the largest Java embedded solution provider in China and Taiwan in terms of license base, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Aplix, it said in a statement. Established in 2000, iaSolu-tion's 12 licensed customers include TCL Corp, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and Amoi Electronics Co (夏新電子) in China; BenQ Corp (明基電通), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and HTC Corp (宏達電子) in Taiwan; and Maxon in South Korea.
■ NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, advancing NT$0.003 to close at NT$34.100 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$390 million.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
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The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
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