Minister takes chairmanship
Lee Yung-san (李庸三), former Minister of Finance, yesterday took office as chairman of the Gre Tai Securities Market (櫃檯買賣中心), formerly known as TAISDAQ, although some market watchers said that he may be overqualified for the position.
During the hand-over ceremony yesterday morning, Lee said that he's familiar with operations of the over-the-counter (OTC) stock exchange since he had served as a member to its board.
He also vowed to help promote the performance of domestic OTC market to an international professional level following its accession to the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in 1991.
CPI falls over past year
Consumer prices in December rose 0.76 percent from a year earlier, led by higher costs for tobacco, wine and vegetables, official data showed yesterday, but the CPI was down overall for last year.
In November, the consumer price index (CPI) fell a revised 0.56 percent from a year earlier, the Directorate General of Budget, Accouting and Statistics (DGBAS) said. Higher prices in tobacco and alcohol last year were offset by lower vegetable, fruit and oil prices.
"Tobacco prices contributed to 0.45 percentage points and alcohol 0.52 points to the 2002 CPI," said Chen Chang-shang (陳昌雄), statistics bureau director with the DGBAS. In December, the wholesale price index (WPI) rose 4.67 percent from a year earlier due to rises in prices for crude oil, petrochemicals and steel.
For the year, consumer prices fell 0.2 percent, matching the government's forecast, the DGBAS said.
China Steel increases sales
China Steel Corp (中鋼), increased sales volumes 8.6 percent to 10.54 million tonnes last year after a recovery in demand, a company official said yesterday.
"The steel market has recovered from a slowdown in 2001. We expect the growth to continue this year," vice president Chen Tse-hao said.
Domestic sales totaled 7.53 million tonnes, up 7.5 percent from a year earlier, while exports rose 11.5 percent to 3.01 million tonnes, he said.
In the first 11 months of last year the company recorded NT$90.92 billion (US$2.6 billion) in sales, up 15.67 percent from a year earlier.
China was the largest oveseas buyer, taking some 35 percent of the total export volumes.
Chen expected growth in domestic demand to exceed that of overseas demand this year. "We will reserve more products for the local market," he said.
While Chen was optimistic about the demand expansion for 2003, he said tensions in the Middle East and the possiblity of tighter import restrictions on steel products by China might have an impact.
Cellphone makers optimistic
Six cellphone makers expect to double production this year to about 59 million units, or about 13 percent of world output, as more companies farm out manufacturing to cut costs, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing unidentified company officials.
BenQ Corp (明基電通), which makes handsets for Motorola Inc and others, expects output to rise to about 19 million units from 16 million, the report said.
NT dollar maintains gains
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart in line with a stronger yen, rising NT$0.161 to close at NT$34.64 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. The level is the highest over the last seven weeks. Turnover was US$636 million, compared with last Friday's US$316 million.
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