EVA Airways says profit may fall
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), the country's second-largest airline, forecast profit will fall 22 percent. Profit is expected to fall to NT$2.04 billion (US$59 million), while sales are predicted to rise 6 percent to NT$68.6 billion in the 12 months to Dec. 31 from a year earlier, the company said in a statement distributed by the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The airline didn't elaborate on the forecasts.
EVA returned to profit of NT$2.6 billion last year, helped by passenger and cargo demand in Asia and a port shutdown in the US, after posting a net loss of NT$3.2 billion the year before.
Intel CEO may cancel trip
The CEO of Intel Corp, the world's leading chipmaker, may postpone a planned trip to Taiwan due to concerns over the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Intel's Craig Barrett was slated to address the spring 2003 Intel Developer Forum in Taipei on April 14 and 15. "The concern is always there," Stanley Huang (黃逸松), Intel's director of marketing and technical services in Taiwan, told the Taipei Times yesterday. "We are evaluating the status of the disease. There has been no confirmation [of Barrett's attendance at the forum] yet."
GIO aims to rate Web sites
Internet portals, Internet service providers along with the government are working on an online content rating system to protect the youth from browsing inappropriate content, a government official said yesterday.
"Just like movies, we plan to rate the content in four categories," said Ho Chi-sen (何吉森), a section chief at the Government Information Office under the Executive Yuan.
The government proposal will request Web sites to post a rating tag on its home pages.
GIO is scheduled to have a public hearing Tuesday discussing details and legal issue about the Internet content rating system.
Chi Mei plans China plant
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation's second largest maker of flat-panel displays, plans to set up an advanced liquid crystal module (LCM) plant in Shanghai, China, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday, citing chairman Hsu Wen-lung (許文龍). Future production from the proposed plant will supply mainly to Greater Shanghai area, Hsu added.
Chi Mei currently have two flat-panel factories in Taiwan and one -- together with its joint venture International Display Technology Inc -- in Japan. The company's third flat-panel factory in Taiwan, using the fifth generation, or 5G, technology is expected to start production in the last quarter of the year.
Hsu said the company hasn't decided whether its planned fourth flat-panel factory will use 6G or 7G technology. "Probably we will [skip the 6G and] jump directly to the 7G technology," Hsu said.
Petroleum prices to stabilize
Despite the war in the Middle East, the state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) said yesterday that the price of domestic petroleum will remain unchanged for the time being for the sake of stabilizing domestic oil and commodity prices.
Chinese Petroleum said that the second quarter is traditionally the low season for the crude oil market, but the war in Iraq has caused crude oil prices to shoot to 10-year highs, the company said.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.042 to close at NT$34.75 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$287.5 million, compared with last.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the