■ TSMC sees gross margin rise
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Corp (台積電) forecast its gross profit margin this year will rise to as much as 46 percent.
Elizabeth Sun (孫又文), deputy director of investor relations, made the forecast at an investor conference in Shanghai.
TSMC's gross margin, or the percentage of sales left after de-ducting production costs, was 39 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. The company expects its factories to be fully used this year, enabling the profit margin to improve to at least 45 percent, Sun said.
■ UMC to boost production
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) will more than double the percentage of its chips that are produced with the most advanced technology in commercial use by the end of this year.
The company will produce 21 percent of its chips using either 130-nanometer or 90-nanometer technology, compared with 9 percent last year, Liu Chitung (劉啟東), finance director of the Hsinchu, Taiwan-based chipmaker, told an investor conference in Shanghai.
UMC plans to start making chips based on 65-nanometer technology by 2006.
"That will make us six to nine months ahead of the standard road map worldwide," Liu said.
Rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) said 0.13-micron chips accounted for 18 percent of its sales in the fourth quarter last year.
■ Hua Nan expects a profit
Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co (華南金控) forecast profit for a second year in a row because of fewer provisions for bad loans.
Net income this year may climb to NT$10.3 billion (US$309 million), or NT$2.18 a share, the Taipei-based company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The lender had unaudited net income of NT$10 billion, or NT$2.12 a share, for last year after it wrote off NT$9.37 billion of bad loans, Wu Ching-yu, finance investment chief, said in a telephone interview. This year, the bank expects to set aside NT$7 billion for bad loans, he said.
Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), the lending unit, had a bad-loan ratio of 3.33 percent at the end of December, and 3.88 percent, including overdue loans under supervision.
■ Panama ties strengthened
The Taiwan External Trade De-velopment Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) concluded a cooperation pact with Panama yesterday with the purpose of stepping up commercial exchanges.
The pact was signed in Taipei by TAITRA chairman Hsu Chih-jen (許志仁) and visiting Panama Minister of Commerce and Industry Joaquin Jacome, and witnessed by visiting Panama First Vice President Arturo Vallarino.
This is the second accord of its kind after Panama signed a cooperation pact with TAITRA's forerunner, the China External Trade Development Council, in 2002.
■ Formosa mulls China steel plant
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) may build a NT$100 billion (US$3 billion) steel plant in China to tap demand in the world's biggest market for the metal, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶).
The company is considering Mei Shan island, which is southeast of Shanghai, because restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide would be easier to meet there, the report said. Formosa Plastics, which had previously considered other locations in China and Taiwan, will probably make a final decision after Taiwan's presidential elections on March 20, the paper said.
■ NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.079 to close at NT$33.299 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
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