Panasonic opens Taoyuan plant
Panasonic Taiwan yesterday celebrated the completion of its new factory in Taoyuan County for production of ALIVH multi-layer resin boards to be used for high-functionality terminals, such as smartphones.
“The global mobile phone market is undergoing a rapid shift from standard phones to smartphones, where major growth is anticipated,” Panasonic Taiwan said in a statement. “In order to meet the growing demand for circuit boards for these high-functionality terminals, Panasonic is striving to increase its overseas production capacity for its original ALIVH multi-layer resin boards.”
In August last year, Panasonic Taiwan expanded its production capacity at its plant in New Taipei City (新北市) to meet rising demand. The new plant in Taoyuan County is ready to enter mass production, the company said.
Foreign investment target up
The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Tuesday that it adjusted upward its goal for attracting foreign investment this year from US$9.2 billion to US$10 billion.
The ministry has also set the goal for domestic private investment at NT$1.1 trillion (US$37.2 billion) this year.
As of the end of last month, 113 investment projects had been approved, worth a total of NT$64.9 billion, accounting for 5.9 percent of the annual target and representing an increase of 18.54 percent year-on-year.
FIHC to manage European hotel
Formosa International Hotels Corp (FIHC, 晶華國際酒店集團) — Taiwan’s largest listed hotel operator, which runs the Regent Taipei (晶華), Silks (晶英) and Just Sleep (捷絲旅) — has signed an agreement with Adriatic Marinas, a European developer, to manage a new luxury waterfront hotel.
The Regent Porto Montenegro is scheduled to open in May 2014 and the 80-room hotel will offer 35 guest rooms and 45 suites with interiors designed by renowned designer Pisano Atelier, according to a statement on Tuesday.
TSMC mulls NT$18bn bonuses
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said on Tuesday its board of directors had proposed to distribute NT$17.98 billion in profit sharing and bonuses to employees, including NT$8.99 billion in cash bonuses.
TSMC’s directors proposed a plan to issue a NT$3 cash dividend. The dividend yield was 3.88 percent, based on the stock’s closing price on Tuesday. They also approved a plan to appropriate NT$42.21 billion for capacity expansion and an additional NT$7.25 billion for research and development, according to a company statement.
TSMC reported NT$134.20 billion in net profit, or NT$5.18 per share, for last year.
Chimei up after conflict solved
Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, saw its share price gain 4.6 percent yesterday, the largest increase since Feb. 3, after the company said on Tuesday a wage dispute in Ningbo, China, had been resolved.
As many as 50 new workers at Chimei’s Ningbo plant did not understand the company’s overtime payment schedule and asked for clarification, according to Howile Peng (彭峻豪), a media liaison official.
NT rises on rebounding euro
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US currency yesterday, adding NT$0.06 to close at NT$29.535, as traders took hints from a rebound in the euro to dump the greenback in the local foreign exchange market, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$778 million during the trading session.
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
China has threatened severe economic retaliation against Japan if Tokyo further restricts sales and servicing of chipmaking equipment to Chinese firms, complicating US-led efforts to cut the world’s second-largest economy off from advanced technology. Senior Chinese officials have repeatedly outlined that position in recent meetings with their Japanese counterparts, people familiar with the matter said. Toyota Motor Corp privately told officials in Tokyo that one specific fear in Japan is that Beijing could react to new semiconductor controls by cutting the country’s access to critical minerals essential for automotive production, the people said, declining to be named discussing private affairs. Toyota is among
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