Six bid for MRT contracts
Six large companies have thrown their hats into the ring for contracts to supply three Taipei Mass Rapid Transit System routes with core electrical systems, sources from Taipei City Hall reported yesterday.
BES Engineering Corp (中華工程), GEC Alsthom SA of France, Siemens AG of Germany, Japan's Sumitomo Group, Canada's Bombardier and the JC Consortium, a joint venture between Japan's Hitachi and Canada's Alcatel, have tendered their bids to the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (台北捷運公司) for contracts worth some NT$17.67 billion (US$511 million), TRTC officials said.
The company is scheduled to award the lowest bidder on Sept. 15. The winner will be authorized to build the core electrical engineering systems, including power supplies, telecommunications, transmission lines, escalators, signals and turnstile systems. The systems will be installed in the planned MRT Hsinchuang Line, Luchou Line and the extension of the Nankang Line, according to the officials.
The Hsinchuang and Luchou lines are scheduled to be completed and opened to service in 2010 while the Nankang extension line is scheduled to open in 2011.
TSMC sales up 10.6%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday that last month's sale rose 10.6 percent from a year earlier.
The sales of NT$16.81 billion (US$483 million), compared with NT$15.2 billion in the same month last year, was 10.1 percent higher than April, a spokesman said.
"The month-on-month rise in sales reflected shipment growth and a wider product portfolio," he said.
In the first five months of this year, sales rose 10.9 percent to NT$71.4 billion from NT$64.4 billion a year earlier. In an investor conference in April, the company maintained a guidance on a growth trend for the second quarter.
Its capacity utilization in the first quarter of this year rose to 67 percent from 61 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
The company recently signed investment contracts with Shang-hai authorities to kickstart its US$898 million investment in China. The project involves the construction of an eight-inch wafer plant in Shanghai's Songjiang Science Park with a monthly capacity of 35,000 wafers using 0.25 micron technology.
TCC elects new boss
Taiwan Cellular Corp (台哥大) elected Fubon Group's (富邦集團) Tsai Ming-chung (蔡明忠) as acting chairman yesterday.
Chairman Jack Sun (孫道存) resigned under pressure from within the company's board after Chinese-language media reported the Taipei District Court has ruled to terminate the directorship because Sun allegedly didn't fulfill his responsibilities as the corporation's chairman.
Intel may buy stake in ProMOS
Intel Corp, the world's biggest semiconductor maker, may buy a stake in ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing unidentified industry sources.
ProMOS is in talks with Intel, the paper quoted ProMOS spokesman Albert Lin (林育中) as saying. He declined to comment on Intel's investment plans, the report said.
Intel may invest US$100 million for two seats on the 11-member board of ProMOS, the report said.
ProMOS Technologies last month changed its profit forecast for this year to a NT$1.2 billion (US$34.6 million) loss on weaker-than-expected prices.
NT dollar gains ground
The new Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange Monday, adding NT$0.003 to close at NT$34.662. A total of US$255 million changed hands.
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