Business briefs

Cross-strait trade grows
Bilateral trade between Taiwan and China in the first quarter of this year rose 33.2 percent over a year ago to US$10.07 billion, the Board of Foreign Trade said yesterday.

However, government officials said the outbreak of SARS in the region is likely to impact trade between the two sides for the second quarter.

During the first three months, Taiwan enjoyed a US$5.54 billion trade surplus with China, up 24.3 percent from a year earlier, the board said.

Exports to China, mostly via Hong Kong, rose 29.9 percent from a year earlier to US$7.80 billion, while imports grew 45.9 percent to US$2.26 billion.

Two-way commerce with China accounted for 16.4 percent of the nation's total foreign trade in the first three months, compared to 14.2 percent a year ago.

Hon Hai to build plant in China
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) will build a plant near Shanghai for an undisclosed amount to produce equipment for making semiconductors and flat-panel displays, a local newspaper said.

Hon Hai will follow Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) to become the third Taiwanese company to invest in Songjiang, the report said, citing unidentified Hon Hai officials.

Hon Hai expects to get better incentives from the Songjiang government than TSMC because it will invest in an industry that is more advanced than chipmaking, the report said.

TSMC received five years of free land use, it added.
Hon Hai last month announced plans to build its first flat-panel display plant in Taiwan and a factory near the Hsinchu location for assembling machinery to produce semiconductors and flat panels.

Chunghwa sales may hurt price
A plan by lawmakers to hold 10 auctions of Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) shares in this country ahead of an overseas or private sale will probably pare the share price, a Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday, citing the company's chairman Hochen Tan (賀陳旦).

Previous attempts to sell the company's stock locally earlier this year showed there's no demand for the shares, four-fifths of which are still owned by the government, the report said.

The sale of Chunghwa Telecom shares in the form of American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange will be postponed from next month until the end of this year, the report said.

The plan by legislators may hurt a bid by President Chen Shui-bian's administration to sell its entire stake in the nation's biggest telecommunications company.

CETRA hosts catalog show
Although the Taipei 2003 Compu-tex has been postponed until September, a catalog exhibition of the companies that have applied to take part in the annual fair is being held at the Taipei World Trade Center, according to the original Computex schedule, organizers said yesterday.

The exhibition opened yesterday and runs through Friday,a spokesman for the China External Trade Development Council said.

Despite the fact that the Computex show had to be put off until September due to the SARS epidemic, a catalog display of the most advanced products made by the participants is being held in an effort to minimize the impact of SARS, the spokesman said.

Taipei 2003 Computex will be held from Sept. 22 to Sept. 26.

NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.013 to close at NT$34.699 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.

Turnover was US$423 million.

Agencies