The Ministry of Economic Affairs on Friday approved Taiwan-Asia Semiconductor Corp’s (TASC, 台亞半導體) application under the Invest in Taiwan initiative to build a new facility at its production site in Hsinchu to enlarge production capacity, at an estimated cost of NT$9 billion (US$296.18 million).
TASC plans to build a new clean room that features smart automatic production lines and a digital monitoring system at its Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) factory, which would enhance its research, development and productions of gallium nitride chips, the ministry said in a statement.
The planned investment marks the latest effort of TASC, a 30-year-old supplier of LED chips, to strengthen its presence in the global market and to boost its operational resilience, it said.
Photo: REUTERS
The company also plans to install rooftop solar panel systems at the factory and reduce its carbon emissions, the ministry said.
The investment is expected to create 127 jobs, it added.
TASC revenue last year fell 26 percent annually to NT$4.52 billion, while its net profit in the first three quarters plunged 43 percent to NT$379 million, company data showed.
The ministry said it is reviewing applications from 23 other companies on a rolling basis.
The government’s Invest in Taiwan initiative has approved 1,306 applications with pledged investments totaling NT$1.92 trillion, which would be expected to create more than 142,000 jobs, the ministry said.
Among them are 279 Taiwanese companies with overseas operations that are making efforts to return to Taiwan to expand local operations, with a combined investment of NT$1.12 trillion, it said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS