■ UMC sales up 31.21 percent
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second largest contract chipmaker, said its sales last month rose 31.21 percent year-on-year to NT$9.65 billion (US$288 million).
Sales in April totalled NT$9.21 billion. For the five months to May sales rose to NT$44.19 billion from NT$32.58 billion a year earlier.
At an April 28 investor conference, chief executive officer Jackson Hu (胡正大) said UMC expected its average selling price in the second quarter to June to show a sequential increase of up to 5.0 percent in US dollar terms on the back of a rise of about 10 percent in wafer shipments.
■ HP to enter flat-TV market
Hewlett-Packard Co, lagging rival Dell Inc by nine months with its entry to the flatpanel-television business, will buy models from Tatung Co (大同) and Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶) for a third-quarter market introduction, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing the Tai-wanese suppliers.
Lite-On will make a liquid crystal display television measuring 30 inches diagonally and Tatung a 42-inch plasma screen TV for the US company, the report said, citing unidentified executives of the companies.
HP has decided to sell the products under a new "Ophelia" brand name after Dell, which sold TVs under its brand, which is associated with computer products, had sales that were poorer than expected, the report said.
HP, the world's second-largest computer maker, and Dell have started offering flat-panel televisions and computers with audiovisual functions, bringing them into closer rivalry with consumer-electronics makers such as Japan's Sony Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
■ China stalls over steel tariffs
China delayed a decision on whether to scrap anti-dumping tariffs on cold-rolled steel from Russia, South Korea and Taiwan.
China's Ministry of Commerce decided at a hearing attended by domestic steel producers and users to keep the anti-dumping tariffs in place, the China Iron & Steel Association said on its Web site. The ministry will make a final decision on the tariffs within a year, it said.
"The government put off the decision partly because China's measures to cool down the overheating steel industry are bringing uncertainties to domestic demand and prices of the metal," said Chen Ying, chief financial officer at Baoshan Iron & Steel Co (寶鋼).
"It is wise for the government to wait and see how the steel market will be changing before they make a decision to abolish the tariffs," she said.
China introduced anti-dumping tariffs on cold-rolled steel on Jan. 14.
■ Quanta's sales up 12 percent
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's biggest notebook computer maker, said sales last month rose 12 percent from a year ago to NT$23.1 billion, according to a Taiwan Stock Exchange statement.
Acer Inc, the nation's third-largest computer company by market value, reported sales last month surged 95 percent to NT$8.44 billion from NT$4.33 billion a year ago, according to a Taiwan Stock Exchange statement.
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation's biggest maker of computer memory chips, said sales last month rose 62 percent from a year earlier to NT$3.6 billion from NT$2.2 billion a year ago.
■ NT dollar moves up
The NT dollar moved up against its US counterpart yesterday, rising NT$0.017 to close at NT$33.470 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
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