SEMICONDUCTORS
Book-to-bill continues to fall
The book-to-bill ratio for North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers declined for a third straight month to 0.98 last month, the lowest level in eight months, according to tallies released by international trade association SEMI on Tuesday. SEMI said the three-month average of worldwide bookings last month was US$1.51 billion, while the three-month average of worldwide billings was US$1.54 billion. A ratio of more than one implies a more optimistic outlook, while a ratio of less than one suggests weakness.
ENERGY
Key firms welcome: MOEA
International firms that own key technologies for power generation, electronics and other industries are welcome to set up research centers, factories or even headquarters in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said on Tuesday. The ministry has identified the industries and technologies that are in great demand in Taiwan, which include offshore wind power, electric vehicles, semiconductor production equipment, power plant air pollution control equipment and liquefied natural gas terminals. Investment in these sectors is expected to reach NT$1.5 trillion (US$47.8 billion) over the next five years, the ministry said.
PC MAKERS
Acer to supply Yilan schools
Acer Inc (宏碁) has won a bid to provide 3,300 Chromebook and 350 Chromebox PCs to Yilan County’s public elementary and junior-high schools in September, the company said yesterday. Shipments of Chromebooks in Taiwan are expected to increase from last year’s 2,000 units to more than 10,000 this year, Acer said. Apart from the educational market, the company said it is also in talks to provide Chromebox systems to some supermarket chain operators, without elaborating. The company said it is also hoping to expand the reach of Chromebooks into the retail sector. Global Chromebook sales are expected to reach 7.3 million this year, Gartner Inc said in May.
MACHINERY
Global Pmx eyes sales rise
Global Pmx Co Ltd (智伸科), a provider of precision machinery processing services, yesterday said sales this year are expected to increase by 15 percent from last year’s NT$2.79 billion, thanks to capacity expansion in China and increased investment in automation. Higher contribution from medical equipment revenue is expected to become the company’s new revenue driver in the coming years, chairman Lin En-tao (林恩道) said at a pre-initial public offering news conference in Taipei. The company, founded in 1987, is expected to debut its shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Aug. 10. The company reported earnings per share of NT$0.65 in the first quarter of this year, compared with last year’s NT$4.27.
CHIPMAKERS
GlobalWafers to list on TPEx
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), a semiconductor foundry that mainly manufactures silicon-based semiconductors, yesterday obtained regulatory approval for its share debut on the nation’s over-the-counter market. The subsidiary of Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (中美矽晶) is expected to trade its shares on the Taipei Exchange (TPEx, 櫃檯買賣中心) at some point this quarter, GlobalWafers underwriter Yuanta Securities Corp (元大證券) said. With capital of NT$3.49 billion, the company reported net profit of NT$2.095 billion last year, or NT$6.57 per share, on revenue of NT$15.92 billion.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
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
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
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,
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