■ Construction firm fined
The Fair Trade Commission yesterday punished a Taipei County-based construction company, Hua Yu (樺昱). It was fined NT$200,000 for conduct that violated Article 24 of the Fair Trade Law (公平法), the commission said in a statement.
"In asking consumers to pay a house deposit before providing contracts for them to examine, Hua Yu have ... violated the Fair Trade Law," the commission said.
The commission said it was unfair for customers not to be granted a five-day review period prior to paying a deposit or signing a contract for the pre-sale houses. Customers should have their deposits returned if they disagreed with the contract, it added.
■ AU launches new logo
The nation's largest manufacturer of panels for flat-screen computer displays and TVs, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), launched a new corporate logo at its headquarters in Hsinchu yesterday.
The company's logo has been changed from "au" in large lower-case letters above the word "optronics" in green to three large uppercase letters "AUO" in a blue-green mix.
"With the announcement of our new [logo], our customers and investors all over the world will have a simple, direct, and in-line channel to us," president Chen Hsuen-bin (陳炫彬) said.
■ Chunghwa stands by chief
Lu Shyue-ching (呂學錦), president of Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信), offered to resign after legislators accused him of being obsessed with his position but the company's chairman rejected Lu's offer.
Legislators on Monday criticized Lu for being infatuated with his job, claiming he "wouldn't let it go," the company said in a statement, without naming the legislators.
Lu immediately offered to resign. Chairman Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) rejected his offer, the statement said.
The chairman did not plan to change the management, it said.
■ TSMC sales up
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said quarter sales ending last month rose 5.3 percent from the previous quarter to NT$57.78 billion (US$1.71 billion) due to a continued rise in shipments. The volume marked a jump of 40.4 percent year-on-year, said TSMC, the world's leading contract microchip maker.
"The increase largely resulted from the sustained rise in our shipments to customers prompted by strong global demand," a company official said.
TSMC's sales last year rose 25.4 percent to a record-high of 201.9 billion from NT$160.96 billion in 2002, a company statement said.
Sales last month stood at NT$18.97 billion, up 2.5 percent from November, adding 67.2 percent from a year earlier, the company said.
■ Most firms invest in China
Over half of local companies listed or trading over the counter on the Taiwan stock exchange have invested in China, Securities and Futures Commission chairman Ding Kung-hwa (丁克華) told lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan yesterday.
Ting said the companies had invested a total of NT$300 billion (US$8.82 billion) in China as of the third quarter of last year.
He said that 436 Taiwan-listed companies have invested in China, while 235 of the more than 400 companies trading over the counter have done so.
■ NT dollar firms slightly
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday showed no signs of weakness against its US counterpart, edging up NT$0.012 to close at NT$33.797 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$595 million.
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