■ Semiconductor
Chipmakers boost output
Samsung Electronics Co and Hynix Semiconductor Inc have boosted production of faster computer memory chips, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported, citing unidentified officials at the South Korean companies. Production of 256-megabit double-data-rate dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips operating at a speed of 400 megahertz accounted for more than 80 percent of their DRAM production, replacing those operating at 266 megahertz and 333 megahertz as the benchmark, the newspaper said. The upgrade may pave the way for mass production of the so- called DDR2 chip, which is faster than the 400 megahertz chip, next year, the newspaper said.
■ Consumer Debt
S Korean economy `mired'
Uncertainties caused by a mountain of household debt and the ailing credit card industry are seriously impeding South Korea's economic recovery despite robust exports, data showed Monday. Industrial output growth in November slowed to 4.7 percent compared with a year earlier from the 7.4 percent rate recorded in October, with the figures hit by serious falls in domestic consumption and investment. Month-on-month, seasonally-adjusted industrial output suffered a 0.3 percent contraction in November, reversing a 2.4 percent gain a month earlier, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said Monday. "Consumption and investment are still mired in a slump due to weak consumer and corporate sentiment," the NSO said. "Still, exports continued their solid growth, offsetting lackluster domestic consumption."
■ Electronics
Sharp makes more LCD-TVs
Japanese high-tech firm Sharp Corp will invest ?90 billion (US$841 million) to boost production of large liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in a bid to take on its South Korean rivals, a report said yesterday. The investment will enable Sharp to triple production capacity at a new domestic plant, scheduled to go on line in January, to 360,000 units of 30-inch LCD-TVs each month, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. A company spokesman could not be reached for confirmation due to the New Year holidays. According to a US research firm, Sharp had a 13.4 percent share of the global LCD market last year, tying for second place with South Korea's LG Philips LCD Co. With the latest investment, the Japanese firm aims to take on South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the top player in the global LCD market with a 15.1 percent share.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS