Memory chip maker Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) said yesterday that its LED materials plant currently under construction in Xuzhou, China, part of a plan to diversify its business, will begin operations next year.
Speaking on the sidelines of a technology forum in Shanghai, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) said the new plant will benefit from Xuzhou’s geographic location and convenient transportation links after it becomes operational.
In March, Powerchip announced it would invest US$15 million at a third location in Xuzhou, which would produce LED EPI wafers and chips, core LED materials.
Huang said the company plans to invest a total of US$300 million in LED production facilities in China to help cushion the impact of a downturn in Powerchip’s core business — dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip manufacturing.
Powerchip is one of many Taiwanese high-tech firms, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), that have invested in the production of energy efficiency or renewable energy products, such as LEDs and solar cells, and are also targeting the China market.
In the first half of the year, 925,000 LED TVs were sold in China, 10.6 percent of all flat panel TVs sold there during that period. The level of market penetration is expected to rise to 25 percent in the second half of the year, indicating that the LED sector will grow accordingly.
Last month, TSMC said it would raise capital expenditure for this year to US$5.9 billion from the previously planned US$4.8 billion and designate about US$100 million for business diversification, which the market believes will be directed at the LED and solar power sectors.
The global DRAM sector is suffering from declining prices because of weaker demand caused by the eurozone’s debt problems and the slowing pace of global economic recovery, market observers said.
Several Taiwanese DRAM makers, such as Powerchip, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), are migrating to advanced production processes in an attempt to cut costs and reduce the impact of falling product prices.
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (better known as Foxconn) ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose 60 places to reach No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc. at 348th, Pegatron Corp. at 461st, CPC Corp., Taiwan at 494th and Wistron Corp. at 496th. According to Fortune, the world’s
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
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DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
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