TSMC acquires Taoyuan factory
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s top contract chipmaker, yesterday signed an agreement with Qualcomm Inc’s local display unit to acquire a factory in Longtan Township (龍潭), Taoyuan County, for US$85 million.
The company might use the factory to boost its advanced chip testing and packaging capacity, while providing more in-house chip testing and packaging services for customers.
TSMC offers cost-efficient INFO packaging service for chips used in mobile devices and high-end 3D CoWoS packaging services for chips used in servers.
Manufacturing output rises
The output of Taiwan’s manufacturing industry hit NT$3.72 trillion (US$120.85 billion) last quarter, up 5.77 percent from last year’s NT$3.52 trillion and up 1.69 percent from the previous quarter’s NT$3.66 trillion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Output of electronic parts set a quarterly record of NT$992.94 billion, up 9.1 percent year-on-year and 5.92 percent quarter-on-quarter, thanks to strong demand for new products from handset brands, the ministry said.
Overall, manufacturing output in the first three quarters increased 3.7 percent annually to NT$10.78 trillion, the ministry said.
Microsoft mulling data center
Microsoft Corp is considering building a data center in southern Taiwan and could invest at least US$600 million next year at the earliest, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources.
The paper said that Microsoft is assessing the possibility of a supersized data center to cater to Taiwan’s original design manufacturers.
Two teams from Microsoft are studying the matter, it said.
Microsoft is seeking “infinite” data storage space coupled with its cloud service to make inroads into Google Inc’s clients, the paper said.
Oaktree to sell golf firm shares
Oaktree Group LLC is to sell its 48 percent stake in Fu Sheng Industrial Co (復盛工業) after investing in the world’s largest maker of golf club heads for seven years, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the situation.
Oaktree acquired the Fu Sheng shares in 2007 for US$852 million. Dow Jones said the planned share sale could value the company at about US$1 billion. Oaktree has hired UBS AG to sell the shares, but the deal is still at an early stage, the report said.
Asus eyes cloud cooperation
Asus Cloud Corp (華碩雲端), a subsidiary of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), said yesterday it will seek strategic alliances in overseas markets to scale up the user pool of its cloud services.
The company has 37 million personal cloud users worldwide and aims to have more than 40 million by the end of the year, before leaping to 100 million next year through cooperation with telecoms and gaming companies in markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and China, Asus Cloud CEO Peter Wu (吳漢章) said at a conference in Taipei.
Hon Hai arm eyes local trading
General Interface Solution Holding Ltd (GIS, 業成), a touchpanel manufacturing arm of Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), has applied to trade its shares on the local stock market, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE) said in a statement yesterday.
GIS, registered in the Cayman Islands, supplies touchpanels for tablet and smartphone brands in the US, Europe and China, TWSE said.
The company has an initial capital of NT$2.86 billion (US$92.63 million). In the first three quarters of this year, GIS made NT$785 million in net profit, or NT$2.84 per share, on revenue of NT$51.83 billion.
Australia names yuan clearer
Bank of China Ltd (中國銀行) has been named as the official clearing bank for the yuan in Australia and agreed to boost cooperation with ASX Ltd, operator of the country’s main stock exchange.
The accord between the bank and ASX is aimed at lifting transaction volumes in an existing settlement service for yuan. The companies will encourage the use of yuan-denominated fixed income products and promote ASX across Asia.
Hua Nan, Huarong sign MOU
State-run Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with China Huarong Asset Management Corp (中國華融) to help the bank-focused conglomerate to explore the Chinese market, the local financial services provider said in a statement.
The two sides will first engage in exchanges of market intelligence, personnel training and legal requirements. In the long run, the cooperation will allow Hua Nan to gain a better understanding of the Chinese market and enhance its expansion plans there, the statement said.
Huarong is one of the top four largest asset management companies in China with total assets of 4 trillion yuan (US$653 billion), the statement said.
China Steel monthly profits dip
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) yesterday reported pretax profit of NT$2.94 billion for last month, down 1 percent from NT$2.97 billion the previous month, but up 30.67 percent from NT$2.25 billion the previous year, the nation’s only integrated steel maker said in a statement.
From January through last month, pretax profit was NT$23.21 billion, up 14.39 percent from NT$20.29 billion a year earlier thanks to declining iron ore prices.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
RSS