UTAC (Taiwan) Corp (聯測科技), a local chip testing affiliate of Singapore's United Test and Assembly Center Ltd (UTAC), is under investigation for alleged illegal investment in China. The probe comes amid the government's tightening of controls over China-bound investment, an Investment Commission official said yesterday.
The investigation was launched after the UTAC parent company announced on Tuesday that it will enter into a US$81-million chip assembling and testing venture with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC,
"We are concerned about weather UTAC (Taiwan) is illegally investing in a chip testing plant in China through its parent company," Huang Chin-tan (黃慶堂), head of the Investment Commission, told the Taipei Times in a phone interview.
The commission is the nation's China-bound investment watchdog.
Despite the fact that chip tester is a unit completely owned by the Singaporean company, chairman Charles Chen (
Chen, who is the son the Taiwanese container shipping giant Wan Hai Lines Ltd's (萬海航運) founder, is a UTAC shareholder. Wan Hai spokesman Jason Lee (李炫宏) said the shipper does not hold a single share in UTAC.
Huang said the commission has requested UTAC (Taiwan) provide clarification on the issue within three weeks.
Local companies are still prohibited from setting up chip testing and packaging factories in China. Local chipmakers must get government approval to set up units there.
The government planned to lift the ban by the end of this year, but it reversed the decision after cross-strait relations deteriorated after Beijing passed its "Anti-Secession" Law in March, providing Beijing with a legal justification to use "non-peaceful" means to prevent Taiwan from declaring formal independence.
In response to the government's probe, UTAC (Taiwan) officials claimed that it has neither directly nor indirectly invested in any Chinese plant.
"It is the decision of our parent company UTAC to form a joint venture with SMIC, not ours. It is unlikely for UTAC (Taiwan) will tap into the Chinese market through UTAC," said president Tsai Chung-cher (蔡宗哲) in a statement released yesterday.
UTAC (Taiwan), previously known as UltraTera Corp, was acquired by UTAC in March in a share swap worth US$475.77 million, creating the world's third-largest semiconductor chip-tester and packager. Currently, UTAC (Taiwan) owns a 48 percent-stake in the new company and occupies three seats in the 15-member board.
UTAC (Taiwan) now provides testing services to semiconductor heavyweights such as Hynix Semiconductor Inc, flash-memory card giant SanDisk Corp and Taiwanese computer memory chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技).
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS