Flights to South Korea restored
Taiwanese airlines launched regular flights to South Korea yesterday after a 13-year halt over a diplomatic row.
Taiwan banned South Korean planes from flying to the island in 1992, after Seoul cut diplomatic ties and recognized China instead.
Taiwan and South Korea signed a new aviation agreement last September, paving the way for yesterday's restoration of regular flights.
China Airlines (華航) will fly between Taipei and Seoul, while UNI Airways (立榮), a division of the rival Evergreen group (長榮), will travel between Kaohsiung and Seoul.
China Airlines said it would raise its weekly number of flights from seven to nine, beginning on March 28. UNI Airways plans to inaugurate scheduled flights between Kaohsiung and Jijou from March 29.
Currently, about 300,000 Taiwanese passengers visit South Korea every year, while about 150,000 Korean passengers visit Taiwan, China Airlines said.
Man charged over data
A San Jose man was indicted Monday on charges that he illegally funneled the proprietary property of a Silicon Valley semiconductor company to a competitor in Taiwan.
Shin-Guo Tsai, 35, is accused of e-mailing sensitive information from Fremont, California-based Volterra Semiconductors Inc, where he was an engineer, to CMSC Inc (益芯科技) of Taiwan.
A bail hearing was set for tomorrow. He faces a maximum 10-year prison term if convicted, and a US$250,000 fine. He is accused of the foreign transportation of stolen property. FBI agents arrested him on Sunday night at his San Jose residence.
The data in question related to the "design of high-performance analog and mixed-signal power management semiconductors for the computing, storage, networking and consumer markets," the government said. The authorities said they found the data on Tsai's computer.
TSMC's says utilization to rise
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (TSMC, 台積電) factory use will exceed 80 percent in the second quarter because customers have eliminated excess inventory, a Chinese-language business daily reported, citing unidentified company officials.
TSMC, the world's largest supplier of made- to-order chips, on Jan. 27 said it expects to use 78 percent of its capacity in the first quarter. The company didn't forecast second quarter factory use at the time.
The outlook for the second half this year is still unclear, the report said. The industry's excess inventory of chips may be eliminated by the second half, the company said in January.
Orders from customers such as Texas Instruments Inc failed to keep pace with TSMC's expansion in the fourth quarter last year, reducing factory use to 88 percent from capacity a year earlier.
Japan's DVD market strong
DVD recorders shipped in Japan more than doubled last year and will likely see another strong year as the technology gets cheaper, a research house said yesterday.
The forecast comes ahead of the introduction expected later this year of next-generation DVD players, which promise to open up a new range of features for consumers despite two rival and incompatible formats.
The MM Research Institute said Japan saw growth of 110 percent in DVD recorders shipped last year with 4.03 million units.
By value, shipments rose 53.5 percent to ?218 billion (US$2.0 billion), indicating lower retail prices -- which in turn helped fuel sales.
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