CPC sells gasoil to S Korea
Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油), the state-owned oil company, sold 20,000 tonnes of gasoil for loading in January to an independent South Korean trader, a company official said.
Chinese Petroleum sold gasoil with 0.035 percent sulfur content at a premium of more than US$1 a barrel to spot prices quoted by oil pricing service Platts, the official said. The cargo will be loaded in late January.
Korea Electric Power Corp, South Korea's power supply monopoly, wants to buy more heating fuel because of a shortage of liquefied natural gas after Japanese utilities were forced to shut nuclear plants for safety checks and buy alternative fuels.
Compal sees handset profit fall
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), which makes mobile phones for Motorola Inc, expects less profit from handsets this year because the company will have a tough time passing on rising parts prices to consumers, a local newspaper said, citing Compal President Gary Chen (陳瑞聰).
The report didn't say how much Compal's profit from handsets would be affected. Mobile-phone prices may rise by as much as 15 percent this year with the addition of more expensive color screens that require more memory in the handsets, the report said.
Compal, which is also the world's second-largest maker of notebook computers, expects to more than triple its output of handsets this year as customers farm out production to cut costs.
Compal plans to make about 10 million handsets this year, compared with 3 million last year.
Via's December sales fall
Via Technologies Inc (威盛電子), the world's second-largest designer of computer chipsets, said December sales fell 17 percent from a year ago.
Sales last month dropped to NT$1.9 billion (US$54.6 million) from NT$2.3 billion in the same month a year ago. Sales in December were unchanged from November.
China Motor sales soar
China Motor Co (中華汽車), Taiwan's largest vehicle-maker, said December sales more than doubled, helping push up sales for the full year by 27 percent.
Sales last month surged to NT$6.3 billion (US$182 million). For last year, sales totaled NT$54.8 billion, said China Motor, whose shares rose NT$4, or 6.3 percent, to NT$67.50 on the TAIEX.
Police set up piracy unit
A police ad hoc unit under the National Police Administration formally started operations Wednesday to crack down on commercial piracy across the country, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday in a statement.
The 220-strong anti-piracy police ad hoc unit was formed mainly to wipe out the increasingly rampant piracy across the country, Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) said in the statement.
In addition to focusing its efforts on cracking down on serious commercial piracy cases, the police ad hoc unit will also help the ministry investigate and seize pirated CDs, Lin said.
According to the ministry, in the year to Dec. 15 last year, 4,863 piracy cases had been uncovered around the country with a total street value of around NT$9.63 billion (US$283.24 million).
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.038 to close at NT$34.791 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$416 million, compared with Tuesday's US$359 million. The market was closed on Wednesday.
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