Consumer confidence steady
Taiwan Research Institute said yesterday that the consumer confidence index this month was 82.98, 11.67 points up from the same period last year but down 0.86 points from last month. The rise is mostly a result of lower commodity prices and the recovering job market following the revival of the domestic economy, the institute said. Confidence in investments, such as stocks and real estate, however, declined because of recent market fluctuations caused by the return of SARS last week, the statement said. The index was based on a poll conducted via phone of 1,088 people between Monday and Wednesday last week. The survey examined six factors: the price of commodities, household economic status, job opportunities, the domestic economy, investment opportunities and purchases of durable goods. Consumer confidence is measures on a scale of one to 100 scale, with 100 being the highest.
Kolin expecting growth
Taiwan Kolin Co (歌林), a leading home appliance brand, expects to grab 10 percent of the local liquid crystal display televisions next year, company spokesman Frank Lee (李敦仁) said yesterday. Lee said Kolin's LCD TV shipments next year will double those of this year to about 10,000 sets, about 10 percent of the market. Kolin said it already sold 5,000 LCD TVs as of yesterday after it pitched its first such flat-panel TV, a 30-inch model, in August. He made the remarks during the launch of a 46-inch model yesterday. Local consumers will be able to buy the new product as early as the second quarter of next year, as long as AU Optronics Corp (友達) can supply enough flat panels, Lee said.
Kaohsiung looks for pointers
Kaohsiung Harbor, once the world's third-largest container port, has begun more closely observing the operations of rival harbors in a bid to recover its former position. Kaohsiung Harbor has now fallen behind Busan in South Korea, and Shanghai and Shenzhen in China, according to statistics from the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau, leaving it in sixth position. Hong Kong is still the largest container port in the world, followed by Singapore. In addition to the pressure from these harbors, Kaohsiung Harbor has also encountered strong competition from domestic ports such as Keelung, Taichung, Mailiao and Taipei. The number of containers handled at Kaohsiung Harbor last year reached 8.49 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), an increase of 12.6 percent over the previous year, and the port plans to reach a target of 9 million this year, according to bureau officials.
CAL buys five used planes
China Airlines Co (華航), Taiwan's largest carrier, said it will pay US$179 million for five passenger planes it currently leases from the government. China Airlines bought four Boeing Co 747-400s and one MD-11 from the government, the Taipei-based company said in a statement.
NT dollar rise expected
The New Taiwan dollar may rise in coming days after the three-day total of stock buying by overseas investors hit the highest in three weeks. Fund managers based abroad purchased a net NT$5.3 billion (US$156 million) of Taiwanese equities in the three-day period, the most since Dec. 4, according to Bloomberg data. The NT dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.006 to close at NT$34.056 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$415 million.
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