South Korea plans on strengthening cooperation with India as Seoul attempts to align with a US-led push to diversify the global supply chain away from China.
“In the era of economic security, it is essential to strengthen supply chain and science and technology cooperation with India,” said South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin, who was on a two-day visit to India that began on Friday.
Park said India shares universal values such as democracy, possesses enormous growth potential and is a crucial partner for South Korea, the South Koran Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Business entrepreneurs who are investing and operating in India must play a crucial role in realizing this,” Park told business leaders in Chennai.
In response, delegates highlighted the importance of fostering stronger human and cultural exchanges between the two countries to boost economic cooperation.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has been seeking help from allies, including South Korea, in reducing the global supply chain’s dependence on China, while also imposing sweeping curbs on the sale of advanced semiconductor equipment.
India has been one of the beneficiaries in the broader shift, as companies such as Apple Inc increase manufacturing capacity in the South Asian nation.
Separately, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo called on European governments to work with the US to fight climate change and counter Chinese clout, the latest sign that Washington hopes allies follow its lead in passing a landmark climate bill.
The US passage of the Inflation Reduction Act rankled European leaders, who complained that it was an unfair subsidy. The Biden administration has sought to soothe that angst, while signaling that Europe should match them rather than start a trade fight.
“We need to work together, and I think whether it’s the IRA or the chips initiative, there’s opportunities for European companies and opportunities for us to work together to meet the moment with climate change and our global competition with China,” Raimondo told Bloomberg Television on Friday. “So, initial hurt feelings, maybe. But there’s a lot of good work to do together.”
She said the US approach to China is to protect US technology and national security, while promoting exports of certain goods.
She also said the US is not looking to make all semiconductor chips on its own soil, but must rely less on Asia.
“Nobody thinks that we should be making everything that we need in America,” she said. “The fact that we buy 90-plus percent of our leading-edge chips from Taiwan is also unsustainable and, quite frankly, almost dangerous.”
ASML Holding NV’s new advanced chip machines have a daunting price tag, said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), one of the Dutch company’s biggest clients. “The cost is very high,” TSMC senior vice president Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, referring to ASML’s latest system known as high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV). “I like the high-NA EUV’s capability, but I don’t like the sticker price,” Zhang said. ASML’s new chip machine can imprint semiconductors with lines that are just 8 nanometers thick — 1.7 times smaller than the previous generation. The machines cost 350 million euros (US$378 million)
EXPLOSION: A driver who was transporting waste material from the site was hit by a blunt object after an uncontrolled pressure release and thrown 6m from the truck Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday there was no damage to its facilities after an incident at its Arizona factory construction site where a waste disposal truck driver was transported to hospital. Firefighters responded to an explosion on Wednesday afternoon at the TSMC plant in Phoenix, the Arizona Republic reported, citing the local fire department. Cesar Anguiano-Guitron, 41, was transporting waste material from the project site and stopped to inspect the tank when he was made aware of a potential problem, a police report seen by Bloomberg News showed. Following an “uncontrolled pressure release,” he was hit by a blunt
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which makes servers and laptop computers on a contract basis, yesterday said it expects artificial intelligence (AI) devices to bring explosive growth to Taiwan’s electronics industry, as AI applications are starting to run on edge devices such as AI PCs. Taiwanese electronics manufacturers such as chipmakers, component suppliers and hardware assemblers are likely to benefit from a rapid uptake of AI applications, Mike Yang (楊麒令), president of Quanta Cloud Technology Inc (雲達科技), a server manufacturing arm of Quanta, told reporters on the sidelines of a technology forum in Taipei yesterday. “I believe the growth potential is promising once
‘WORST OVER’: A large portion of Hon Hai’s non-operating loss came from Sharp’s large flat-screen business, but Young Liu said the situation is expected to improve Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler, yesterday reported annual growth of 72 percent in net profit last quarter, due to a dramatic decrease in losses from Sharp Corp’s display business. Net profit surged to NT$22 billion (US$678.7 million) last quarter, from NT$12.83 billion a year earlier, as Hon Hai booked a non-operating loss of NT$4.24 billion, an improvement from NT$20.12 billion in the first quarter of last year. A major portion of its non-operating loss came from Sharp’s large flat-screen business Sakai Display Products Corp. On a quarterly basis, Hon Hai’s net profit sank 59 percent from NT$53.15