■ Manufacturing
Canon to automate plants
Japanese office equipment maker Canon Inc plans to fully automate a quarter of domestic production in order to counter cheap labor in China and other overseas manufacturing centers, a spokesman said yesterday. Canon plans to carry out 25 percent of its domestic production on unmanned lines by the end of 2007, the company spokesman said, adding the Canon group's production in Japan total about ?1 trillion a year (US$9.7 billion). The effort would involve relocating about 5,000 workers to lines harder to automate such as electronics parts for digital cameras, he said, adding that the move would not involve job losses. There is a possibility that Canon will automate all copier-manufacturing lines in the future, he said.
■ Mobile Phones
LG reports record sales
LG Electronics Inc rang up record monthly sales last month after shipping third-generation (3G) mobile phones to Hutchison and Orange, and forecast it would become the top plasma television maker by 2006. The 15 percent rise in sales from September partly reflected the popularity of its mobile phones designs, with features such as swivelling cameras, and its early lead in selling pricey 3G phones to operators such as Hutchison Whampoa and France Telecom's Orange. LG, which is also the world's top maker of air conditioners, recorded sales of 2.35 trillion won (US$2.2 billion) last month. The company, the world's fifth-largest mobile-phone maker, sold 5.09 million phones last month, up 27 percent from September and 68 percent from a year earlier.
■ Mobile Phones
NEC plans system LSI chips
NEC Corp and NEC Electronics Corp will partner to develop parts to be used in cellphones capable of working with existing and next-generation high-speed services, also known as third-generation networks. The companies will jointly develop a semiconductor known as a system LSI, they said yesterday in Tokyo. Handsets equipped with the chip will be able to operate on different cellphone standards used in different parts of the world. NEC Corp is predicting a loss at its handset business this year, partly because of higher-than-expected fees relating to fixing software in phones. The partnership with NEC Electronics is intended to produce a chipset, or group of chips and software, more suited for NEC Corp's most advanced phones, executives said.
■ Electronics
IBM, Honeywell sign deal
International Business Machines Corp, the world's largest computer maker, signed a 10-year contract to develop military electronics for Honeywell International Inc. Under the accord, Armonk, New York-based IBM agreed to provide research and development, as well as engineering and manufacturing expertise to Honeywell, which will give IBM access to military and aerospace resources and customers, the companies said in a statement. IBM said the contract may be worth several hundred million dollars. IBM chief executive Officer Sam Palmisano wants to use partnerships with other corporations to capitalize on the company's technologies. Honeywell, which is the world's biggest maker of electronics used in cockpits, said that it will use IBM's resources to make high-speed communications and computer-networking equipment for aircraft, weapons and space and surface vehicles.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
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