The Japanese government would begin preparing a bill to expand financial aid aimed at increasing local production of semiconductors by domestic and foreign companies, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to submit the bill to an ordinary Diet session this year, the daily reported, citing people it did not identify who belong to the administration and ruling party.
Global chip shortages in industries ranging from automotive to entertainment have slowed growth in the world economy as it attempts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) said earlier this month that it would build a chip factory in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, with a subsidiary of Sony Group Corp becoming a minority shareholder in the venture.
The bill would also strengthen the government’s ability to check the country of origin of any computer equipment it purchases, with a goal to block China-made computer devices before they were installed in a national security capacity, the Yomiuri reported.
Separately, Samsung Electronics Co vice chairman Jay Y. Lee yesterday left for Canada and the US in his first overseas business trip since his parole in August, Yonhap News agency reported.
Samsung’s de facto chief told reporters at an airport that he would meet with “various partners” in the US, Yonhap said.
While it is unclear what Lee would do in his first business travel to the country in five years, he could visit Samsung’s chip plant site in Austin, Texas, amid the shortage of semiconductors and might finalize the selection of the site for the firm’s new US chip plant, according to the report.
Lee is also to visit Boston, where Moderna Inc’s headquarters are located. Samsung Biologics Co makes the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
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