■ ECCT has new head
The European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT) said that Ralf Scheller, managing director of TUV Rheinland Taiwan Ltd, was unanimously elected chairman of the ECCT Board of Directors and will assume the post next year, according to a statement released yesterday. Scheller is the chairman of the ECCT Product Certification Committee, as well as the chamber's vice chairman. He will replace Dirk Sager of Melchers Trading, who served a maximum two-year term, the statement said.
■ Acer predicts profit rise
Acer Inc, the world's fourth-biggest supplier of personal computers, said profits next year will probably rise to NT$10 billion (US$301 million). The company's earnings per share will probably reach NT$4.3 and sales may increase to NT$321 billion next year, the Taipei-based company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. With subsidiaries included, sales may rise to NT$400 billion next year, Acer said. The company's profits are rising as it gains market share from rivals such as China's Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想). The company may become the No. 3 player in the global notebook market by mid-next year, president Gianfranco Lanci said in October.
■ NT dollar drops
The New Taiwan dollar declined against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, losing NT$0.013 to close at NT$33.187. A total of US$982 million changed hands during the day.
CONSIDERATIONS: The NSTC instructed the park to assist laid-off workers and urge companies to use furlough programs to ease the effects of falling demand Firms in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), which houses major tech companies, reported laying off 496 employees last month amid weakened global demand, Hsinchu Science Park Bureau director-general Wayne Wang (王永壯) said yesterday. Wang told a news conference that 48 companies in the science park laid off employees last month, including one hard disk supplier which let go 241 employees as part of a plant closure due to falling demand. Other companies reported sporadic layoffs as they adjusted to weakening demand, he said. Wang made the remarks after local media reported the layoffs over the weekend. Although the global economy is struggling with high
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck have promised to solve investment subsidy issues for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Intel Corp, despite the country’s budget woes. Uncertainty over the funding to TSMC and Intel has arisen after a ruling by the German Federal Constitutional Court, which cast doubt over subsidies for construction of local semiconductor chip plants. On Nov. 15, the court ruled that the German government’s decision last year to reallocate 60 billion euros (US$65.74 billion) of unused funding from COVID-19 pandemic support measures to its Climate and Transformation Fund
LONG ROAD AHEAD: The US is somewhere between one and two decades away from achieving the Biden administration’s goal to achieve chip autonomy, Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), who runs the semiconductor industry’s most valuable company, said the US is as much as 20 years away from breaking its dependence on overseas chipmaking. Huang, speaking at the New York Times’ DealBook conference in New York on Wednesday, explained how his company’s products rely on myriad components that come from different parts of the world — not just Taiwan, where the most important elements are manufactured. “We are somewhere between a decade and two decades away from supply chain independence,” he said. “It’s not a really practical thing for a decade or two.” The outlook suggests
GREEN SOLUTIONS: The company said that it is set to become one of the very few suppliers of low-carbon emissions cement, which would give it a competitive edge Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥) plans to spend up to 770 million euros (US$843.5 million) to boost its holdings in two cement ventures in Turkey and Portugal as demand for low-carbon emissions cement rises in Europe, the company said on Monday. Taiwan Cement’s board of directors has approved a plan to lift the company’s stake in OYAK Denizli Cimento, a joint venture with Turkey’s OYAK Group, to 60 percent from 40 percent and to increase its stake in Cimpor Portugal Holdings SGPS SA, a Portuguese cement joint venture with OYAK, to 100 percent from 40 percent, it said in a statement. “Through increased
RSS