Business Briefs

■ UMC workforce to hit record
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest made-to-order chipmaker, said its workforce will grow to a record 2,500 this year as the chip industry rebounds from a three-year slump.
The company hired 1,000 workers last year, according to company spokesman Alex Hinnawi.
UMC's fourth-quarter profit rose over 600% on rising demand for chips used in phone networks. Net income rose to NT$6.7 billion (US$202 million), or NT$0.44 a share, from NT$986 million, or NT$0.07, a year earlier.
The company said it will triple its spending on expansion in 2004 to US$2.1 billion.

■ Oil prices to drop
The state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) announced yesterday that the company would lower prices for its liquefied petroleum gas by an average of 8 percent, including a NT$1.2 per kg cut in prices for consumer-use gas and a NT$1.3 per kg cut in industrial-use and car-use oil, a company statement said. The new pricing policy was to take effect today.
Following the announcement, smaller rival Formosa Petrochemical Crop (台塑石化) announced the same price cuts for the same items.

■ Low inflation predicted
A rebounding economy will not spur inflationary pressure, the central bank said in a report to the legislature's finance committee yesterday.
Despite a robust economic recovery, the consumer price index is expected to increase by only 0.38 percent for the whole of this year, a contrast to a negative annual growth rate of 0.28 percent last year, the report said.
The central bank based its forecast on the premises that major economies will continue to maintain relaxed monetary policies and that competition in retail businesses will remain fierce, producing no further inflationary pressure.

■ China investments to be eased
The Ministry of Finance is mulling a plan to relax restrictions on local insurers' investments in their counterparts in China, Vice Minister of Finance Yang Tze-kaing (楊子江) told a seminar Wednesday.
The plan awaits final approval from the Mainland Affairs Council, Yang said, saying that the government is inclined to allow local insurers to build larger stakes in Chinese insurers.
"Local insurers will make headway in greater China markets if they are allowed to buy up to a 25-percent stake in Chinese insurers," Yang said.
According to Yang, the new cross-strait insurance initiative involves no complications such as the need to facilitate cross-strait financial supervision and therefore presents the government with few reasons not to give the idea a green light.
Nine Taiwanese insurance companies operate offices in China.

■ Hon Hai offering new products
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world's third-largest maker of electronics for other companies, plans to make camera mobile phones for Nokia Oyj and Motorola Inc, a Chinese-language newspaper reported.
A Hon Hai unit that specializes in semiconductor packaging will soon provide samples of the handsets to Nokia and Motorola, the report said.
Hon Hai chairman Terry Kuo (郭台銘) has said the company has been planning to enter the business, according to the report.

■ NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar traded lower against its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.079 to close at NT$33.179 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$936 million.