■ New car registrations rise
New car registrations rose 20.7 percent to 371,488 vehicles in the first nine months from a year ago, suggesting consumer spending won't slow any time soon by rising oil prices. New car registrations, however, dropped nearly 10 percent to 33,383 vehicles last month from the year earlier, according to statistics from the Ministry of Trans-portation and Communications. As automobile companies start to launch new models this month, the total number of new car registrations is expected to reach 470,000 vehicles this year, industry sources forecast. The number of new car registrations fell below 500,000 in 1996 amid a soured economy. The number continued falling to 347,000 units in 2001 before turning better last year to above 400,000 units. Toyota Motor Corp launched its Wish recreational vehicles last month and Yulon-Nissan Motor Corp starts to marketing the new Teana sedans this month. China Motor Corp's (中華汽車) Mitsubishe Grunder sedans and Ford Lio Ho Motor Co's (福特六和) Focus small passenger cars will be introduced into the market next month and December, respectively, according to companies.
■ HP's Fiorina to visit Asia
Hewlett-Packard Co chief executive Carly Fiorina will visit Taiwan, Japan and South Korea this month to meet suppliers and make presentations, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing uniden-tified company officials. Fiorina, who will arrive in Taipei on Oct. 14 and stay one day, will probably meet key suppliers, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the report said. Hewlett-Packard will probably buy US$16 billion in goods from Taiwan this year, about 8 percent more in dollar terms than a year earlier, the paper said. The company's main rival, Dell Inc, will purchase about US$12 billion worth of products, the paper said.
■ LCD price slide may persist
The decline in prices of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) used in computers and televisions may continue in early this month, the Taipei-based WitsView Technology Corp (聯景科技) said in an e-mailed report. The prediction comes after some suppliers said they expect the slide to halt. The average price for benchmark computer-monitor screens measuring 17 inches diagonally will drop by 2.6 percent to US$190 and by 3 percent to US$160 for a 15-inch panel by the middle of the month, WitsView said. The price decline is slowing, the researcher said. The price drop "has become less severe than that in July and August," WitsView analyst Henry Wang said in the report. The pace of price declines for screens used in televisions may increase, WitsView said. "Panel makers are adopting an aggressive strategy by offering attractive prices,"' Wang said.
■ Forex reserves hit new record
Foreign exchange reserves rose to a record US$233.01 billion (NT$7.9 trillion) at the end of last month, the central bank said yesterday. It was the 37th straight month of record reserves, with last month's level beating August's US$231.61 billion. The central bank said the increase last month was due to gains in the value of the euro against the US dollar, which increased the value of the bank's euro holdings, as well as returns from foreign exchange reserves management.
■ NT dollar dips
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.042 to close at NT$33.918 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$472 million.
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