■ Computer sales rise
The nation's computer sales posted growth in the fourth quarter of last year thanks to soaring notebook sales, International Data Corp Taiwan said yesterday. The combined volumes of desktops and notebooks hit 721,655 units in the last three months, up 3.9 percent from the same period a year ago, the research firm said. Overall, sales volume of portable computers totaled 228,614 units, demonstrating an annual growth of 34.2 percent. The top five notebook vendors were Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Acer Inc, Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Hewlett-Packard Taiwan and Toshiba Corp. "As widescreen laptops accounted for over 50 percent of all notebook sales for the first time, they will most likely become the mainstream models in the near term," IDC Taiwan analyst Sunny Chen (陳睿聆) said.
■ UMC sales fall
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday said its sales fell to NT$7.52 billion (US$231.4 million) last month from NT$8.41 billion in January, but were up 22.50 percent from a year earlier. Its sales for the first two months of the year rose to NT$15.93 billion from NT$13.28 billion in the same period last year.
■ NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar traded down on its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.056 to close at NT$32.529 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
Zimbabwe’s ban on raw lithium exports is forcing Chinese miners to rethink their strategy, speeding up plans to process the metal locally instead of shipping it to China’s vast rechargeable battery industry. The country is Africa’s largest lithium producer and has one of the world’s largest reserves, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Zimbabwe already banned the export of lithium ore in 2022 and last year announced it would halt exports of lithium concentrates from January next year. However, on Wednesday it imposed the ban with immediate effect, leaving unclear what the lithium mining sector would do in the
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