US labor dispute stalls ships
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮) has been unable to unload 11 ships carrying tons of cargo amid a labor dispute involving longshoremen at several ports along the US's East Coast.
The ships, carrying merchandise to be delivered to retailers, including Costco Wholesale Corp and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, remain at docks at the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others were diverted to Canada or Panama.
International Longshoremen's Association members have refused to handle Evergreen cargo since May 14 after the company refused to recognize a 3-2 vote in December to join the ILA by five office workers.
Chips off the old block imported
Taiwan plans to import 8.1 million tonnes of gravel from China over one year as part of efforts to ease the country's shortage of construction material, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry agreed on Thursday after finishing marathon negotiations with construction- sector representatives to set the annual gravel import volume from China at 8.1 million tons for the year beginning this month.
Since January, domestic gravel importers have filed applications with the ministry's Board of Foreign Trade for imports of Chinese gravel amounting to 63.5 million tonnes, according to board officials.
Taiwan began to import Chi-nese gravel in 2001, when the nation's imports for the year totalled 1.8 million tonnes. The figure surged to 9 million tons last year.
Quanta reports sales rise 79.8%
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the nation's largest notebook computer maker, said last month's sales rose 79.8 percent from a year earlier.
Sales rose to NT$20.7 billion (US$596 million) from NT$11.5 billion. Sales increased from NT$20.6 billion in the previous month.
Compal predicts laptop growth
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world's second-largest maker of notebook computers, expects new PC chips from Intel Corp to help lift global laptop sales by about 20 percent, a local newspaper said, citing the company's president.
Price cuts for Intel's Centrino chips that connect notebook computers to the Internet with a radio link should help stimulate demand, the report said, citing Compal president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰).
Growth in sales of notebook computers this year will exceed the 5 percent rate for desktop computers, the report quoted Chen as saying.
Compal, which also makes products such as cellphones, last year posted NT$117.2 billion (US$3.4 billion) in sales, up 51 percent from 2001.
No Iraqi oil order yet
Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) said yesterday that it will not bid for the first post-president Sad-dam Hussein crude, but is interested in signing a long-term contract with Iraq.
"As a state-run company, we are conservative and want stable oil supply. Therefore, we sign long-term purchase contracts - sometimes longer than five years -- with foreign oil companies," a company official said, asking not to be named.
"After the war, Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization [SOMO] is just starting to operate. We will watch what negotiation terms SOMO gives to other importers and how much flexibility it has. If it can give us preferential terms, we do not rule out signing long-term contract with SOMO," she said by phone.
NT dollar holds steady
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded unchanged against its US counterpart at NT$34.665 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$346 million.
Agencies
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
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