Foreign bidders submit tenders
General Electric Co of the US, Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and France's Alstom SA submitted their bids yesterday to supply as many as eight natural gas-driven turbines worth NT$80 billion (US$2.3 billion), said Lee Chuan-lai (李傳來), a public-relations specialist at the state-run Taiwan Power Co (台電).
These three foreign bidders are competing to supply Taipower with eight generator units to be installed in the proposed 4,000-megawatt Tatan thermal power plant in in Kuanyin township, Taoyuan County, Lee said.
The first two turbines are scheduled to be installed and start commercial runs in 2005, with the remaining six units beginning operations in 2008, Lee said. Taipower will close the tender sometime between May and June.
Louis Vuitton picks Taipei 101
Louis Vuitton, part of the luxury market leader LVMH Moet Hen-nessy Louis Vuitton SA, will open a 130-ping (430m2) flagship store in the shopping mall of Taipei 101, owners of the yet-to-be completed skyscraper said yesterday.
The mall is scheduled to open in October.
The Grand Formosa Regent Hotel also pledged to open a 324-ping (1,071m2) restaurant in the mall, the Taipei Financial Center Corp (台北金融大樓公司) said in a statement, citing executive Amy Hsueh (薛雅萍).
Lend Lease Pty Ltd Taiwan (聯盛國際), which is responsible of marketing and leasing for the mall, declined to elaborate on potential tenants of the four-floor mall. Harace Lin (林鴻明), president of the Taipei Financial, said last month that the mall aims to sign up 162 local and international brand companies by October.
Yulon forecasts sales increase
Yulon Motor Co (裕隆), the nation's third-largest automaker which assembles and distributes autos for Nissan Motor Co, said sales this year may rise 21 percent from a year ago, boosted by demand for its new sports-utility vehicle.
Sales will probably rise to NT$42.3 billion (US$1.2 billion) from NT$35.4 billion last year, the company said.
Yulon unveiled two 2l X-Trail sports-utility models in late December of last year and has sold more than 2,000 units last month.
Nvidia increases TSMC order
Nvidia Corp, the world's biggest designer of computer-graphics chips, has raised its orders placed with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) significantly, a local newspaper reported yesterday, citing Nvidia chief executive officer Huang Jen-hsun (黃仁勳).
Huang said Nvidia has placed US$2 billion worth of orders with TSMC over the past five years. The California-based company is willing to place another US$2 billion given strong prospects for system chipsets and work stations, he added.
The newspaper said TSMC has begun mass production of the NV30 graphic processor using 0.13 micron copper technology.
Confidence in economy growing
Local businesses are increasingly confident about the nation's economic prospects for the coming six months, according to the results of a survey released yesterday by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台經院).
The poll said 40.3 percent of the Taiwan-based firms think that the economy will turn better over the six months ahead. That figure is compared with 36.2 percent it reported last month.
NT dollar rises slightly
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.038 to close at NT$34.740 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
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