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Fire costs oil firm NT$4m
Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油), Taiwan's state oil company, said an explosion that caused a fire at a refinery unit at Taoyuan this morning will result in losses of about NT$4 million (US$115,585) for the company.

The fire, which started at 8:05am, was extinguished within half an hour. No casualties were reported.

The fire was caused by a leak at the unit, said Chen Lie-Way, a spokesman at Chinese Petroleum. The unit reduces sulfur levels in fuel oil to produce cleaner burning, more-expensive fuel.

"Refinery operations are normal now and only the desulfurization unit is shut," Chen said. "The restart depends on how soon we can get parts to repair it and how long the investigations take to complete."

Cabinet counting on chips
Taiwan plans to invest NT$10 billion over the next three years to upgrade the nation's semiconductor industry, the government said yesterday.

It has launched a project to develop an integrated circuit (IC) design industry, a Cabinet official said.

"Taiwan already plays an important role in the global IC manufacturing sector. Now, we will devote more efforts to develop upstream IC design and integrate it with our semiconductor industry," he said.

The IC project, named Si-Soft for silicon software development, is expected to raise the annual output of the IC-related industry from the current NT$600 billion to NT$700 billion to NT$10 trillion in 10 years.

Delegation goes south
Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) will lead a delegation to Vietnam today for a three-day visit under the government's "go-south" policy.

Lin stressed that investment in Taiwan takes precedence over investment in Southeast Asia, but added that as long as Taiwan's manufacturers have needs, the ministry will help them invest in the region.

Lin's delegation, which also includes manufacturers, is the third such group to visit Southeast Asian countries.

Securities firms going west
Yuanta Core Pacific Securities Co (元大京華證券), Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) and rival Taiwan brokerages will be able to open representative offices in China, after the Ministry of Finance amended rules to let brokers open offices there, the Securities & Futures Commission said in a statement.

The Chinese government and its regulators would need to approve any such expansion, though Taiwanese banks are already establishing a presence in China.

Bonds gain on war woes
The local-currency bonds gained as investors opted for fixed-income securities on concerns that a war against Iraq would hurt economic growth in the US, Taiwan's second-largest export market.

Declines in the US dollar against Asian currencies may also boost the attractiveness of local bonds.

"Confidence about the economy for the next six months to one year is more neutral than positive now," said Erik Chen, who manages NT$17 billion (US$491 million) in fixed-income assets at Shinkong Investment Trust Co (新光投信).

NT dollar continues its rise
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.036 to close at NT$34.644 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.

Turnover was US$470 million, compared with the previous day's US$834 million.

Agencies
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