■ Some Volvo cars recalled
Volvo Car Corp is recalling 460,000 vehicles globally, including about 1,800 cars in Taiwan, because a wiring problem could cause a fan to overheat and cause fires, the company said yesterday in a statement. The affected car models are S80 and S60 sedans as well as XC70 and V70 wagons from the 1999, 2000 and 2001 model years, the automaker said. The recall is the largest in Volvo's history, according to the company.
No injuries have been found in Taiwan due to the defective cooling fans, the automaker's Taiwan branch said. Volvo will provide the replacement for the fan for free. A defect in the main cooling fan, which cools the engine, can cause a short circuit and force the fan to keep running.
■ Textiles no longer No. 1
The electronics, telecommunications and information sectors have replaced the textile industry as the No. 1 contributor to Taiwan's trade surplus, with exports accounting for 30.4 percent of the total outbound shipments in the January-August period, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics reported yesterday. According to the statistics compiled by directorate, outbound and inbound shipments swelled to US$113.4 billion and US$107.7 billion, respectively, in the first eight months of this year, leaving the country with a trade surplus of US$5.7 billion. Exports of electronics, tele-communications and information technology products amounted to US$34.5 billion during the eight-month period, making up 30.4 percent of the overall outbound shipments and marking a 24 percent growth over the same period of last year. The export figure is ahead of the import level of similar goods, which hit US$23.7 billion and posting a trade gap of US$10.8 billion in Taiwan's favor. Imports of minerals and chemicals came at second and third spots. The more than US$10 billion trade surplus made the information-related sectors top earner of the country's foreign exchanges, outstripping the second-highest level of US$6.7 billion recorded by the textile industry, according to the official tallies.
■ Interest rates likely to rise
The central bank will probably raise interest rates at its meeting this month after two key money market rates rose, a Chinese-language business daily reported, citing unidentified lenders. The overnight lending rate between banks climbed to 1.081 percent yesterday, the highest since the central bank last cut rates in June last year, the newspaper said. Pressure is rising for the central bank to raise rates in view of a potential third rate increase by the US Federal Reserve on Sept. 21, the paper said. There's more than a 50 percent probability that the central bank will raise rates, the paper said. The central bank also offered a yield of 1.085 percent, compared with 1.075 percent, for 182-day negotiable and non-negotiable certificates of deposit yesterday to gauge market response, the paper said. There were no bids for the maturity. Sales of certificates of deposits are part of the central bank's open market operations, which the agency usually carries out to drain funds from the banking system to keep interest rates in line with central bank policies.
■ NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar moved up yesterday against its US counterpart, advancing NT$0.059 to close at NT$33.811 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$668 million.
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