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Inventec Q2 profit to drop
Inventec Co (英業達), the world's third-largest notebook computer maker, said it expects second-quarter net income to fall by a quarter to NT$643.3 million (US$18.5 million) on price cuts by No. 1 customer Hewlett-Packard Co.

Inventec's gross margin for notebook computers, the percentage of sales left after production expenses, has fallen to about 7 percent from about 10 percent last year. Inventec posted profit of NT$852.2 million in the second quarter a year ago.

Second-quarter profit will gain by at least 50 percent from NT$428.9 million in the first quarter, said Alexander Hsu (徐信群), vice president of finance.

Toshiba Corp, a new customer, is helping lift gross margin from 6 percent in the first quarter.

The company expects sales this year to rise by as much as a quarter from NT$82 billion last year.

AU Optronics OK's dividend
Shareholders at AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) approved a cash dividend of NT$1 per share at the company's annual shareholders' meeting yesterday. Half the dividend is to be paid in cash and the other half in common shares, the company said in a statement.

The company's net sales doubled last year to top NT$75.5 billion, bringing in NT$6 billion in net income.
Last month, AU began commercial production at its fifth-generation, or 5G, flat-panel factory, the first such facility in the country. By September, the company plans to open its own color-filter factory, a key component of flat-screen computer displays and televisions, and to expand an assembly plant in Suzhou, China.

CAL, Delta to code-share
Delta Air Lines Inc, the third-largest US airline and China Airlines Co (CAL, 華航) will start selling seats for each other's flights between five US cities and Taiwan next month, more than a year after the agreement was stalled when a CAL plane crashed.

The agreement will allow China Airlines to book passengers on Delta Air flights to Atlanta, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Tampa, and Cincinnati, its spokesman Roger Han (韓梁中) said.

The airlines will also share facilities and passenger-handling services in some cities and link their frequent-flier programs.

PFP slams debt plan
PFP Legislator Christina Liu (劉憶如) yesterday criticized the government's plans to relax the ceiling imposed on government debt, saying the soaring debt will only make younger generations poorer.

Liu said outstanding government debt over the years has increased from 25 percent of GDP three years ago to 33 percent now.

To help spur an economic recovery, the government has hoped to issue more bonds to inject capital into public infrastructure projects.

Liu questioned if President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration could make good use of the funds.

"Some argued that golden egg could give birth to golden chicken," she said. "But I am afraid the administration would only break the golden egg.

CKS numbers rising
The number of passengers passing through CKA International Airport was expected to reach 8,000 yesterday, compared with 7,201 on Thursday, an airport official said.

The number of flights took off or touched down was expected to increase to 173 yesterday from 155 a day earlier, the official said.

NT dollar gains
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday turned stronger against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.06 to close at NT$34.712 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$456 million.
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