MACHINERY
Hitachi seeks offer extension
Japan’s Hitachi Group yesterday said that it is seeking to extend today’s deadline for its tender offer period to acquire elevator supplier Yungtay Engineering Co (永大) to April 22. More time is required, as the offer has yet to be cleared by the Investment Commission and the Fair Trade Commission, the company said. Hitachi said that it has not received reports of any competing bidders and, as the sole buyer in the deal, it intends to wholly own the Taiwanese company. An extraordinary meeting of the board of directors would take place on April 18 to protect shareholders’ interests, Yungtay independent director Chen Shih-yang (陳世洋) said.
MANUFACTURING
Sales in FPG units decline
The four major units of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) yesterday reported that combined sales last month dropped 8.6 percent annually to NT$115.78 billion (US$3.75 billion). Combined sales in the first two months of the year also declined 8.8 percent annually to NT$253.9 billion. Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) led its peers last month, with sales rising 5 percent to NT$14.82 billion. Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維) saw sales last month dip 8.1 percent to NT$27.57 billion, while Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) saw sales decline 10.6 percent to NT$52.43 billion. Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) had the weakest showing with sales dropping 12.7 percent to NT$20.96 billion.
AVIATION
AIDC chairman retires
Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空工業), the nation’s largest civilian and military aircraft manufacturer, yesterday announced that chairman Anson Liao (廖榮鑫) has tendered his resignation and would retire. Liao is to be succeeded by Air Force Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Hu Kai-hung (胡開宏). The change did not have the support of the AIDC workers’ union, which said that a government program to build locally developed trainer jets — which was launched under Liao’s watch — could be compromised. The union urged the government, a major stakeholder, to appoint a chairman from the company’s ranks. Liao took the helm at AIDC in 2015 and assembled an alliance of local aerospace suppliers to tackle major military and foreign commercial aircraft contracts.
ENERGY
Taipower ordered to pay GE
State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) on Tuesday said it would pay General Electric Co (GE) US$158 million in a dispute over payment for a reactor system for the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, following three years of international arbitration. Expressing regret at the International Chamber of Commerce’s ruling, which also stipulates that the payment must be made before June, Taipower said it would decide whether to appeal it. In April 2014, then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) announced that the two GE-built reactors at the plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) would be mothballed amid rising public concern about nuclear power following the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan on March 11, 2011. Since 2014, Taipower has stopped paying bills resulting from a contract under which GE was commissioned to build a nuclear reactor system and offer equipment and services for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, accusing GE of failure to meet the contract requirements. The plant was sealed in 2015.
Taiwan will prioritize the development of silicon photonics by taking advantage of its strength in the semiconductor industry to build another shield to protect the local economy, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said yesterday. Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Liu said Taiwan already has the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a shield, after the semiconductor industry, to safeguard the country, and is looking at new unique fields to build more economic shields. While Taiwan will further strengthen its existing shields, over the longer term, the country is determined to focus on such potential segments as
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
COLLABORATION: Given Taiwan’s key position in global supply chains, the US firm is discussing strategies with local partners and clients to deal with global uncertainties Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday said it is meeting with local ecosystem partners, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), to discuss strategies, including long-term manufacturing, to navigate uncertainties such as US tariffs, as Taiwan occupies an important position in global supply chains. AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) told reporters that Taiwan is an important part of the chip designer’s ecosystem and she is discussing with partners and customers in Taiwan to forge strong collaborations on different areas during this critical period. AMD has just become the first artificial-intelligence (AI) server chip customer of TSMC to utilize its advanced
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
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