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EVA forecasts sales drop
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) said yesterday it expected its sales this month to fall some 27 percent due to the SARS epidemic.

EVA's revenue for this month will drop by about NT$1.5 billion (US$43.2 million) from last June's NT$5.56 billion, the airline said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp. EVA said its sales in April and last month fell by NT$1.7 billion, or about 17 percent, from the same period a year ago.

EVA has cut flights and returned leased planes to owners to help pare costs since April, when SARS started spreading in Asia.The company cut almost 80 percent of its flights to Japan this month because of SARS.

EVA earlier said it planned to cut its scheduled flights by about 30 percent worldwide this month, after a similar cut last month.

The carrier filled about 30 percent of seats with paying passengers last month, down from 75 percent a year earlier. The load factor this month is expected to slide some 30 percent from a year earlier, it added.<[> The airliner's sales last month fell 25.33 percent from a year earlier to NT$3.76 billion following a 9.35 percent drop to NT$4.32 billion in April.

Toppoly ups production
Compal Electronics Inc's (仁寶電腦) flat-panel display unit, Toppoly Optoelectronics Corp (統寶光電), plans to raise NT$65 million to increase production of color screens for handsets, the Chinese-language ETtoday.com reported yesterday, citing no one.

Part of the funds would be provided by Compal, which owns 32 percent of the display maker. Compal declined to comment on Toppoly's fundraising plans.

Toppoly is the first local flat-panel maker to compete with bigger rivals in Japan and South Korea in production of so-called low-temperature poly-silicon thin film transistor liquid crystal display (LTPS TFT LCD), designed for small high-resolution displays such as those in phones. It started commercial production last month.

Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), a Standard & Poor's affiliate, said last week that Toppoly is Compal's main long-term investment risk, as some uncertainties about its development exist due to the new display technology.

"As Toppoly is a new company engaged in a relatively new technology, it will require further funding to expand over the next few years," it said.

Toppoly was established in December 1999 by Compal, Uni-President Enterprises Co (統一企業), which run more than 3,000 7-Eleven stores nationwide and Teco Electric & Machinery Co (東元電機), the nation's largest maker of industrial motors.

CETRA eyes Africa, Middle East
The China External Trade Devel-opment Council (外貿協會) said yesterday it is planning to begin new global trade promotions as the outbreaks of SARS seems to subside, with focus especially on Africa and the Middle East.

Eyeing on the business opportunities of helping reconstruct Iraq, the council is sending a vanguard of sales promoters to Lebanon, Kuwait and Jordan, according to council president Chao Yung-chuan (趙永全).

The council promoters are also heading to Nigeria and Kenya to try to gain a toe-hold in these areas given the countries' market reform policies and receptiveness to outside trade, Chao said.

In the latter half of the year, the council plans to send trade missions to the Middle East, the Mediterranean, South Korea and Central and South America, Chao said.

NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.046 to close at NT$34.599 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$447.5 million.
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