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Air travel to Singapore steady
A new SARS case in Singapore has not impacted travel to Singapore so far, the nation's two international airlines said yesterday.

China Airlines Co (中華航空) said it has begun to take temperatures of passengers when they depart Singapore for Taiwan.

"There's nothing unusual for our flights to and back from Singapore," said Joseph Wu (武志厚), a public relation specialist at China Airlines.

In addition to disinfecting its planes, anyone developing a fever on a plane will be seated in an isolated section and provided surgical masks, Wu said.

EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) also said bookings for its Taipei-Singapore flights remain normal.

Formosa Petrochem cuts output
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation's only private oil refiner, cut output more than a fourth to 53 percent of capacity from Sept. 1 to carry out repairs, and won't raise production until Oct. 20, people familiar with the company said.

Exports of jet fuel, kerosene, gas oil and gasoline from the refiner will be reduced in the two months, said the people, who declined to be identified. The last scheduled maintenance at the plant was carried out in March, one of the people said.

Formosa Petrochemical, which supplies about 600 gasoline stations nationwide, broke the domestic fuel market monopoly of state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) when it commenced operations in 2000.

It is seeking to grab more of Chinese Petroleum's 71 percent retail market share.

S&P affirms Fubon's ratings
Standard & Poor's (S&P) Ratings Services yesterday said it has affirmed ratings on both Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and the Hong Kong-based International Bank of Asia, following an announcement which Fubon made on Tuesday announcing that it plans to acquire International Bank.

Fubon said it wants to acquire a 55 percent stake in International Bank and will make a voluntary general offer on shares of the Hong Kong lender by the year's end, pending regulatory approval from authorities in Taipei and Hong Kong.

The proposed purchase "will further increase Fubon's banking operations to more than 80 percent of its total consolidated assets and diversify its business outside Taiwan," said S&P's credit analyst Connie Wong in a statement.

CIECA group off to Europe
A trade mission organized by the Taipei-based Chinese International Economic Cooperation Associa-tion (CIECA) left Tuesday for a 15-day tour of Poland, Russia and the Slovak Republic.

CIECA officials said that the mission, made up of 20 representatives of the business sector, aims to explore trade and investment opportunities.

China External Trade Development Council chairman Hsu Chih-jen (許志仁) will lead a delegation to the seventh Taiwan-Poland economic cooperation meeting slated for tomorrow in Warsaw, they said.

The mission will attend the first Taiwan-Russia economic cooperation meeting scheduled for Sept. 17 in Moscow, which will be jointly presided over by CIECA Vice Chair-man Wang Chung-yu (王鍾瑜) and Georgy Petrov, vice president of Russia's Federal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The mission will also participate in the fifth Taiwan-Slovak economic cooperation meeting, which will be held Sept. 22 in Bratislava.

NT dollar maintains strength
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday maintained strong against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.007 to close at NT$34.090 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.

Turnover was US$816 million.

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