■ Gas prices hiked again
With world crude oil prices rising day by day, both Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) and Form-osa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced price hikes yesterday for wholesale gasoline and diesel.
The price hikes will be effective at midnight tonight. Chinese Petroleum will increase the price of 98 RON, 95 RON and 92 RON grades of unleaded gasoline by NT$0.8 a liter and diesel by NT$1 a liter, while Formosa Petrochemical will raise the price of both its gasoline and diesel products by by NT$0.8 a liter.
These two refiners raised prices Jan. 7 when they hiked the price of gasoline by NT$0.5 per liter and diesel by NT$0.2 a liter
Chinese Petroleum chairman Kuo Chin-tsai (郭進財) said on Wednesday that the company faces "tremendous" pressure as a result of rising crude prices.
■ Chi Mei optimistic on profit
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美光電), the nation's second-largest maker of flat-panel displays for personal computers and televisions, expects fourth-quarter profit for last year to exceed its earlier forecast of about NT$4 billion (US$118.7 million) on strong demand for flat TVs.
The company had a NT$608 million loss in the same period a year earlier. Chi Mei shipped more than 30,000 TV panels measuring 27 inches and 30 inches diagonally in the fourth quarter, according to spokesman Eddie Chen (陳炎松).
■ HannStar sells shares overseas
HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶), the country's fourth-largest maker of flat-panel displays, sold US$264 million of shares overseas, said an official at the sale's arranger UBS AG, as it invests in new equipment to keep up with rising demand.
The company sold 700 million shares in the form of global depositary receipts (GDRs), with 20 shares making one GDR, said Marcus Brown, director of equity capital markets at UBS AG in Hong Kong.
HannStar reported a net loss of NT$543.17 million for the nine months ended September 30 last year.
■ BOT projects grew in 2003
A total of 36 build-operate-transfer (BOT) ventures worth about NT$62.47 billion (US$1.84 billion) were signed between the government and the private sector last year, an 8.6-fold growth over the 2002 level of NT$7.27 billion, according to an official of a task force under the Public Construction Commission.
The 36 projects are expected to create 20,000 jobs and help the government save at least NT$2 billion in operational costs and increase its tax revenues and royalties income of more than NT$2.3 billion, the official said.
The government welcomes private sector investment in sewage systems, intelligent transport systems, water resourcing and reservation systems, pollution prevention facilities, tourist and sports establishments and power supply plants.
■ Cross-strait trade record set
Two-way trade across the Taiwan Strait broke the US$50 billion mark to hit an all-time high of US$58.37 billion last year, according to a recent report by China's Xinhua News Agency.
The report showed that cross-strait trade posted a 29.8-percent gain for the first 11 months of last year compared with the year-earlier level.
According to statistics provided by the Board of Foreign Trade in Taipei, cross-strait trade hit US$49.69 billion during the first 10 months last year.
■ NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday turned weak against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.01 to close at NT$33.700 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
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