TSMC names Engibous
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest maker of chips designed by other companies, nominated Tom Engibous as an independent member of the company’s board of directors.
The appointment of Engibous, who retired from Texas Instruments Inc in April last year, and the approval of three other existing independent directors are awaiting shareholder approval at a meeting on June 10, the Hsinchu-based chipmaker said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
The three other independent directors are Acer Inc (宏碁) founder Stan Shih (施振榮), Peter Leahy Bonfield, former chief executive officer of British Telecom, and Carly Fiorina, former chief executive officer at Hewlett-Packard Co.
Gas, diesel increase
Gasoline and diesel prices will both increase by NT$0.1 per liter today, state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and its private rival, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), said yesterday.
After the price adjustment, CPC’s price for a liter of 98-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$27.1 per liter, while prices of 95-octane unleaded gasoline and 92-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$25.6 and NT$24.9 per liter respectively. Diesel will be priced at NT$22.2 per liter, CPC said.
EU withdraws tariff threat
The EU ended a threat of tariffs on stainless steel from China, Taiwan and South Korea after the recession prompted EU producers to withdraw a complaint alleging price undercutting.
The European Commission closed an inquiry into whether Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean exporters sold cold-rolled flat products in the EU below cost, in a practice known as dumping.
The conclusion of the case removes the threat of punitive EU duties against companies including China’s Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel Co (山西太鋼不銹鋼), Taiwan’s Yeun Chyang Industrial Co (允強實業) and Korea’s Daiyang Metal Co.
Furnace to shut early
China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan’s biggest producer, shut one of its blast furnaces ahead of schedule this week for maintenance that may cut output by almost half.
The No. 3 furnace will be out of commission for three to four months, executive vice president Chung Le-min (鍾樂民) said yesterday, without stating the date of the halt. The Kaohsiung-based company runs four furnaces with a total annual capacity of 10 million tonnes, including the No. 3 plant’s 2.8 million tonnes.
Production may fall by as much as 45 percent during the maintenance period, China Steel said in February, when it announced a 14 percent cut in prices for domestic customers as the global recession sapped demand. The firm plans to announce June prices for Taiwanese customers on April 30.
Chunghwa buys Nan Ya bonds
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan’s largest phone operator, said it bought NT$305.5 million (US$9 million) in corporate bonds issued by Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the world’s largest processor of plastics for pipes and imitation leather.
UMC eyeing He Jian takeover
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s second-largest custom-chip maker, said it might acquire China’s He Jian Technology (Suzhou) Co (和艦).
“We don’t rule out acquiring He Jian,” chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said yesterday. UMC did not have a timetable for the purchase of the company, of which it holds 15 percent in trust, he said.
UMC received the stake in He Jian after stockholders in June 2005 passed a resolution allowing it to gain the shareholding as compensation for “past assistance.”
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a