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Foreign reserves increase
Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves stood at US$246.628 billion at the end of February, up US$3.844 billion from a month earlier, according to the latest tallies released yesterday by the the nation's Central Bank of China (CBC).
The figure, which trail those of Japan and China, was up from US$242.74 billion in January and US$241.74 billion at the end of December last year, CBC officials said.
The February figure also represents a new high, they added.
They attributed the increase to an influx of foreign capital, revenue from foreign exchange reserves investment and the appreciation of the Euro against the US dollar.

Acer predicts capital gains
Acer Inc, the nation's third-largest computer company by market value, said it expects a capital gain of NT$244 million (US$7.89 million) from its fourth sale in three months of shares in Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
Acer sold 2.34 million shares in Hon Hai Precision at an average price of NT$145.23 a share between Feb. 2 and March 4, according to a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Acer, which became the world's fourth-biggest personal computer maker in the fourth quarter, on Jan. 12 said it plans to sell 10 million shares in Hon Hai Precision, Taiwan's biggest electronics company by sales. The stake was worth NT$1.38 billion at the time.
Acer has been selling shares in companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) to bolster profits. The company sold about 7.45 million shares of Hon Hai Precision from Dec. 2 to Jan. 5 for a gain of NT$699 million, according to information Acer released previously.

Chipmaking industry to slow
The global semiconductor industry is expected to grow at a sharply slower pace this year with revenues to increase 3.4 percent to US$227.6 billion, industry research house Gartner said Thursday.
The projected expansion is down from a rise of 23.9 percent in 2004, when huge demand for electronics on the back of a strong global economy pushed industry revenues to US$220 billion, Gartner said in a report.
Weaker consumer demand, high inventory levels and slower business spending are the main factors behind the projections of a smaller rise this year, Gartner said.
"The factors that drove strong revenue growth in 2004 -- tight fab [plant] capacity, strong consumer and business spending on electronics, and lean inventories -- have dissipated," Gartner semiconductor analyst Philip Koh said.
"Strong capital spending in 2004 has already had an effect in bringing down semiconductor manufacturing capacity utilization rates and end markets are cooling down as global economic conditions weaken."
Conditions in the semiconductor sector will improve next year but weakness in the first half will keep revenue growth under 10 percent, Gartner said.

Asustek predicts sales increase
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) may ship 4 million notebook computers this year, up more than 30 percent from last year, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing company vice chairman Tong Tsu-hsien (童子賢).
The company expects strong growth in emerging markets, including Russia, China and India, the news report said.
Asustek makes notebooks for other companies such as Apple Computer Inc. It also sells products under its own brand.

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