■ 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.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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