Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) on Tuesday inaugurated a new factory in Changhua County’s Erlin Township (二林) to meet growing demand for high-end chip testing and packaging services.
SPIL, a subsidiary of ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), said the phase 1 facility is part of the company’s NT$80 billion (US$2.64 billion) capacity expansion program in Erlin over the next eight to 10 years.
The expansion is expected to create 7,000 jobs, it said.
Photo: Yen Hung-chun, Taipei Times
“SPIL continues investing in new factories to get a head start on new growth opportunities,” chairman Tsai Chi-wen (蔡祺文) said, adding that the facility would be “a major step forward in Changhua County’s efforts to encourage semiconductor development.”
Construction of a phase 2 facility would begin soon, Tsai said.
That factory would occupy 14.5 hectares, making it three times larger than its existing plant in the county, SPIL said.
Photo: Yen Hung-chun, Taipei Times
ASE group said it is committed to increasing investment in Taiwan to provide advanced chip testing and packaging services, catering to rising demand for electric vehicles, 5G and high-performance computing-related chips, group chairman Jason Chang (張虔生) said.
The investment also aims to safeguard Taiwan’s leading position in the world’s chip testing and packaging industry, he said.
The nation’s chip industry faces tough challenges and competition in the next 10 years, as countries around the world view semiconductors as a strategically important resource and would heavily subsidize their own buildup, he said.
To protect Taiwan’s competitiveness in semiconductors, Chang said the government should create measures to support recently passed amendments to the Act for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例).
The amendments stipulate that companies that work to innovate technologies domestically and have a critical role in international supply chains would be granted tax deductions equivalent to the sum of 25 percent of their research and development expenditures and 5 percent of their spending on new equipment acquired for “advanced processes” over a fiscal year.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire