Formosa to cut gas prices
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation's second-largest oil refiner, announced Monday that it will cut the wholesale price of gasoline by NT$0.8 per liter and diesel by NT$0.6 per liter, the company said in a statement.
"To reflect falling international oil prices as the war in Iraq comes to its close, Formosa Petrochemical has decided to cut the wholesale prices of oil products," the statement said, citing Su Chi-yi (蘇啟邑), a Formosa Petrochemical spokesman.
State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油), the nation's largest oil refiner, said it would follow suit by matching Formosa Petrochemical's cuts. But in order to defend its market share, Chinese Petroleum said the measure would go into effect 10pm yesterday, said Liao Tsang-long (廖滄龍), head of Chinese Petroleum's public relations division. Formosa later followed suit with a 10pm price-cutdeadline cancelling its original midnight deadline.
Grundig files for insolvency
German electronics goods maker Grundig said it filed for insolvency yesterday, a week after Turkish group Beko announced it was abandoning plans to acquire the maker of television sets and car radios.
Grundig had already teetered on the verge of bankruptcy in 2000 after chalking up tens of million of euros in losses. Since then it has failed to return to profit. Last year, the group has pencilled in a loss of 75 million euros.
Last week, Beko, controlled by the family-owned Koc conglomerate, announced that it had decided not to buy Grundig "following an in-depth examination and evaluation."
Taiwan sells Chunghwa shares
The government's NT$25 billion (US$718 million) sale of a stake in Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) sagged for a third day, with investors buying only 3.7 percent of the total shares on offer in the former phone monopoly.
More than halfway through the auction, the government has sold less than 10 percent of the total 500 million shares it is offering to local investors. The sale continues for another two trading days.
The government said it sold 18.42 million shares today, raising NT$921 million. It sold 6.2 million shares on April 11 after selling 22.45 million shares on the first day of the auction.
The minimum bid accepted was NT$50 a share.
Via raises chipset prices
Via Technologies Inc (威盛電子), the world's second-largest maker of chipsets for personal computers, has raised prices after it settled patent suits with Intel Corp, a local newspaper said, without saying where it got the information.
Via raised prices by US$3 per chipset, the report said, without giving prices or the percentage increase. The company's prices are on a par with rivals such as Silicon Integrated Systems Corp (矽統), the paper said.
Shipbuilder expects to hit target
State-owned China Shipbuilding Corp (CSBC, 中船) yesterday said that it is expected to reach its profit target of NT$285 million (US$8.14 million) this year.
The CSBC registered a profit of NT$350 million last year after operating for years in the red.
CSBC officials said that the ship-building market has yet to recover amid a global economic slump and the company, facing difficulties expanding its market, has had to focus on cutting costs.
CSBC chairman Hsu Chiang (徐強), has asked staff to work together to cut operating costs by 10 percent.
NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.01 to close at NT$34.806 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$219 million.
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