The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday gave the green light to Good Way Technology Co’s (東碩資訊) application to invest up to NT$700 million (US$23.1 million) in Taiwan under a three-year program that provides incentives for overseas Taiwanese companies to invest back home.
Good Way, which specializes in docking stations and counts Intel Corp among its major clients, plans to set up a manufacturing facility in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止), the ministry said in a statement.
Good Way, which has a research and development facility in Taiwan and only one manufacturing plant — in Kunshan, China — decided to expand its operations in Taiwan to meet customers’ requests that it diversifies its production to lower risks amid trade tensions between the US and China, the ministry said.
The ministry also approved three other companies’ investment applications: mechanical parts maker Chenming Electronic Tech Corp (晟銘電子), golf club manufacturer Juming Co (鉅明) and storage furniture maker Huei Tyng Enterprise Co (輝庭企業).
Chenming Electronic, which specializes in server cloning, plans to set up a new automated plant in northern Taiwan to sharpen its competitive edge, the ministry said, without disclosing the planned investment amount.
Juming and Huei Tyng are to invest more than NT$800 million and NT$900 million respectively to expand their production capacities as more orders are transferred to Taiwan, the ministry said.
STATE UTILITIES
In other news, the ministry said Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) posted a pretax profit of NT$18 billion for last year after an injection of NT$32.7 billion from the government’s energy price stabilization fund.
Without allocation from the fund, Taipower posted pretax losses of NT$14.7 billion due to a combination of frozen electricity rates and mounting fuel costs, the ministry said.
Oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) posted a profit of NT$35.2 billion, as global crude oil prices rose last year.
However, the company is forecasting losses as international oil markets have slumped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖) and Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水) posted pretax profits of NT$3.28 billion and NT$191 million respectively for last year, the ministry said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is accelerating capacity expansion fivefold this year, but it is still unable to keep up with the booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said yesterday. This year alone, the company is building 25 chip manufacturing fabs and advanced packaging facilities worldwide, including 13 plants in Taiwan, which is unprecedented, Hou said at a CEO Summit fireside chat at Semicon Taiwan in Taipei. In the past, the company was able to build five or six factories a year, said Hou, who is also chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry
EXPANSION: The 3-hectare site would include small clean rooms and laboratories as well as a world-class training base for advanced packaging talent, the company said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is to establish a presence in the Baipu Industrial Park (白埔產業園區) in Kaohsiung to accelerate the testing and validation of semiconductor materials and equipment, a company executive said on Tuesday. The company is working with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Kaohsiung City Government on the plan, which is expected to improve validation efficiency by 25 to 50 percent, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC global summit held ahead of the Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opened in Taipei yesterday. TSMC would also conduct
Visitors look at a 64-qubit superconducting quantum computer on display at the Fujitsu booth at the Semicon Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday.
READJUSTMENT? Despite the rumors, a senior Google official said that the company plans to expand its AI research center in Taipei’s Shilin District Google Taiwan is reducing its workforce as the company continues to adjust operations to improve efficiency and focus resources on core goals, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported yesterday. The Alphabet Inc unit said the organizational adjustments have begun and would continue, even though it did not put a figure on the number of potential job cuts or specify the affected departments in its Taiwan operations. The company’s response came after rumors circulated on social media about major job cuts at Google Taiwan. Some posts said the downsizing would target the company’s consumer electronics-related departments
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