Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has started its environmental impact assessment on land designated for construction of a new plant by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in Chunan, Miaoli (northern Taiwan), according to government sources locally.

The three-month average of worldwide billings of North America equipment manufacturers registered a sequential decrease for the third consecutive month in August 2018, reaching a nine-month low of US$2.24 billion, according to SEMI.

US and Europe equipment vendors have reduced investment and R&D efforts for the PV sector in the wake shrinking demand from China, and instead are focusing more on the semiconductor sector, according to industry sources.

The Taiwan government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has announced to establish an office for developing technologies and solutions for power grid management and modernization.

Taiwan received export orders totaling US$43.68 billion in August 2018, increasing 4.5% sequentially and 7.1% on year, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

HP Enterprise (HPE) has recently been said to have recommended its partners adopt its server products using AMD's platforms to avoid the impact of Intel processor shortages. But Digitimes sources from the upstream supply chain have indicated that no other server players have seen issues with supply...

China's IC industry is expected to establish a solid foothold in five years and go on to become a top-three or top-four player globally in 2028-2030, according to Zhao Weiguo, chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup.

China-based fabless IC firms have managed to become world-class chipmakers following 10 years of technology advancement, and they are now technologically on a par with global peers, according to Roger Luo, president of TSMC Nanjing.

TH Tung, chairman of Pegatron, has noted that his company has reestablished some manufacturing sites in Taiwan in recent years, and that moving production back to Taiwan could be a key direction to help reshape some of Taiwan's manufacturing industries.

Lithography tool vendor ASML is optimistic about increases in demand from China's chipmaking industry, and believes it will land orders for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) litho equipment from China customers looking to make advanced 7nm chips, according to Shen Po, president of ASML China.

Strong high-end chip probing demand is prompting Sigurd Microelectronics to expand production capacity, according to the Taiwan-based company specializing in wafer probing and final testing of ICs.

Global fab equipment spending will increase 14% this year to US$62.8 billion and is expected to rise 7.5% to US$67.5 billion in 2019, marking the fourth consecutive year of spending growth and the highest investment year for fab equipment in the history of the industry, according to SEMI.

Combined third-quarter 2018 revenues of Taiwan's foundry houses are estimated to rise 6.2% sequentially or inch up 1.6% on year to US$9.94 billion on a gradual pick-up in mobile communication chip foundry demand, according to Digitimes Research.

Eight-inch IC foundry Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) has trimmed its financial guidance for the third quarter following a power blackout that hit one of its wafer fabs.

The emergence and convergence of AI, IoT, cloud, and autonomous driving technologies have brought tremendous opportunities to the semiconductor industry. However, as the process technology moves towards 7nm/5nm nodes, heterogeneous integration, and 3D structures, there are many challenges in the industry...

Demand from China's semiconductor industry is set to witness robust growth, according to fab toolmaker KLA-Tencor, which expects China to become its largest market in 2019.

Backend house Kingpak Technology will complete the first phase of its capacity expansion by the end of 2018 to satisfy growing demand for automotive CMOS image sensors (CIS), according to industry sources.

Taiwan's machinery imports are expected to see sharp increases in the second half of 2018, as suppliers of silicon wafers, memory and passive components have started to take delivery of equipment since the third quarter of the year to support their capacity expansions later, according to industry so...

Amkor Technology has unveiled its new plant in Taiwan to focus mainly on high-end IC backend services, such as wafer-level and flip-chip packaging, and high-end chip probing.

Chunghwa Precision Test Tech (CHPT) has expressed optimism about semiconductor probe card demand for AI and 5G applications.

Successfully starting his own business twice, Gwong Lee, managing director, Translink Capital, sold his second firm for a high price 15 months after its establishment and he was named one of Silicon Valley's top-10 most important persons of the year. Afterwards, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou invited Lee...

ASE Technology Holding, the parent company of IC backend houses Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL), saw its August revenues increase 8.7% sequentially, while memory backend specialist Powertech Technology (PTI) enjoyed another month of record-high re...

Worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings, which hit a record high of US$17 billion in the first quarter of 2018, slipped 1% sequentially to US$16.7 billion in the second quarter, according to SEMI.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) saw its August revenues climb 22.4% sequentially, while fellow foundry company United Microelectronics' (UMC) revenues slipped 8.1% on month. Specialty IC foundry Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS), which runs only 8-inch wafer fabs, has posted...

Intel is encountering tight 14nm process production capacity in-house, and is looking to outsource part of its 14nm chipset production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), according to industry sources.