Demonstrators carry a giant inflatable red pencil that reads in German: “Today’s shortcuts are tomorrow’s crises” in front of the German Chancellery in Berlin yesterday to protest cuts in development cooperation. After a long struggle within the coalition, the German Cabinet is to decide the government’s draft budget for next year and the medium-term financial plan for up to 2028 during a weekly meeting at the Chancellery.
Photo: AFP
FOPLP PLANS? The chipmaker said the budget was for fab construction and manufacturing facilities, but did not comment on reports of talks with Innolux Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) board of directors yesterday approved capital appropriations of US$29.62 billion to install and upgrade the firm’s chip manufacturing process technologies, as well as its advanced and mature packaging technology capacity. The capital expenditure budget would also be for fab construction and installation of manufacturing facilities, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said in a statement. TSMC did not comment on reports that it was in talks with flat-panel display maker Innolux Corp (群創) to acquire an idle plant as it prepares to convert manufacturing equipment into a new chip packaging production line that is to use fan-out
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), yesterday said it has signed an agreement with Innolux Corp (群創) to acquire the flat-panel display maker’s plant in Tainan for NT$17.14 billion (US$530.6 million) amid supply constraints of its advanced packaging capacity constraints. TSMC plans to use the plant, including buildings and manufacturing facilities, for future operations, the world’s biggest foundry service provider said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The chipmaker did not elaborate on whether it would convert the plant into a new panel-level packaging factory, or expand its advanced packaging chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity. The chipmaker "is working whatever it
The world’s biggest steel producer sounded the alarm about a crisis in China that carries the potential to send global shock waves, warning of a deeper industry downturn than major events in 2008 and 2015. Conditions in China are like a “harsh winter” that would be “longer, colder and more difficult to endure than we expected,” China Baowu Steel Group Corp (寶武鋼鐵集團) chairman Hu Wangming (胡望明) told staff at the company’s half-year meeting. For commodities including steel, the warning from Baowu underscores risks to demand and prices, as well as what ArcelorMittal SA, the No. 2 firm in the industry, called an
As monsoon rains were about to break over Pakistan, 14-year-old Shamila and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off in exchange for money, a decision their parents made to help the family survive the threat of floods. “I was happy to hear I was getting married... I thought my life would become easier,” Shamila said after her wedding to a man twice her age in hope of a more prosperous life. “But I have nothing more, and with the rain, I fear I will have even less, if that is possible.” Pakistan’s high rate of marriages for underage girls had been inching