Business Briefs
www.taipeitimes.com STAFF WRITER WITH AGENCIES Wednesday, Mar 19, 2003,Page 11
Petrol firm considers backup Chinese Petroleum Corp may ship crude oil to Taiwan from countries including Venezuela should its supply from the Middle East be disrupted, state-run Central News Agency said, citing unidentified company officials.
Chinese Petroleum, Taiwan's state oil refiner, may ship the crude from oil fields where it has equity stakes in countries including Venezuela, Taiwan's state-run news agency reported.
Taiwan imports almost all its oil and plans to reduce its reliance on supplies from the Middle East because of concern an invasion of Iraq could disrupt shipments.
Teco opens motor factory Teco Electric & Machinery Co opened a motor factory in China's Wuxi yesterday. The US$70 million joint venture with Taiwan's China Steel Corp, and Japan's Nippon Steel Corp, Marubeni Itochu Steel Inc, and Sumitomo Corp aims to make back its investment this year, and earn a further US$300 million over the next five years, a statement from the company said yesterday.
Teco currently has another factory in Suzhou, China and other facilities in Australia, North America, Southeast Asia and Taiwan.
Aerospace agreement signed Australian avionics maker TMC teamed up with a Taiwan aeronautics company yesterday to open a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan.
Under the agreement signed in Taipei, TMC -- the world's third-largest avionics maker -- and Taiwan's Falcon Aerospace Corp will invest NT$350 million (US$10.2 million) to develop, manufacture and market trunk mobile radios. Trunk mobile radios can transmit voice and data messages via radio waves. The radios are designed for companies with messengers and mobile service staff.
TMC is the second foreign avionics firm to open a R&D center in Taiwan this month.
Quanta to make Toshiba laptops Quanta Computer Inc, the world's biggest supplier of notebook computers, signed on Toshiba Corp as a customer, a local newspaper said, citing unidentified Quanta officials.
Quanta expects to become in May the third Taiwanese supplier to Toshiba, which already buys laptop computers from Compal Electronics Inc and Inventec Co the report said.
Notebook computer sellers have lifted orders and pared prices with Taiwanese suppliers after Hewlett-Packard Co started a round of price cuts in recent months, the report said.
TSMC to boost production Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's biggest supplier of made-to-order chips, expects fourth-quarter factory use to rise to 85 percent, a local newspaper reported, citing unidentified employees.
The company used 61 percent of its production equipment in the fourth quarter last year after a slump in demand for chips started in the middle of last year.
Refco, Polaris to merge Refco Group Ltd, the world's largest privately held futures broker, and Polaris Securities will merge their Taiwan futures-trading operations into a single unit, Polaris said in a statement.
Polaris will own 57.5 percent of the venture, with Refco owning the remainder.
NT dollar declines The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.027 to close at NT$34.730 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$430 million.