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■ CSFB derivatives office opens
Credit Suisse First Boston Corp (CSFB), the securities unit of Switzerland's second-largest bank, said it opened a listed derivatives broker in Taiwan yesterday. Credit Suisse will trade future and option contracts listed on the Taiwan Futures Exchange for qualified foreign and domestic clients through its branch in Taipei, the bank said in a statement. "We expect the listed derivatives market in Taiwan to continue to grow rapidly as the use of these products for hedging and investment purposes becomes more widespread," Alexander Lin, managing director and head of equity derivatives trading in Asia at Credit Suisse, said in the statement. The average daily volume of Taiwan-listed derivatives contracts increased substantially last year, making the Future Exchange the fifth largest in Asia, according to the securities firm. Credit Suisse opened a branch in Taipei in 1998, the same year the government formed a futures exchange as part of the reorganization of its financial industry.

■ TFEC eyes US sales
The Taiwan Futures Exchange Corp (TFEC) said yesterday it will discuss with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), when it hosts a series of seminars in Taipei next month, on plans to trade Taiwanese electronics and financial index futures contracts in the US. The CBOT has expressed its willingness to first distributed a questionnaire to potential investors on their interests in trading of Taiwan's futures contracts, before further discussing the plan's viability with Taiwanese side, according to the futures exchange.

■ TSMC mulls expansion
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufact-uring Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest supplier of made-to-order chips, may spend as much as NT$200 billion (US$6.5 billion) to build a factory and a research and development center, the company said. TSMC wants to reserve land for the project near its headquarters in Hsinchu, said Tzeng Jinnhaw (曾晉皓), a company spokesman, responding to a Chinese-language business daily. No schedule or money has been budgeted, he said. Taiwanese semiconductor makers will invest about NT$300 billion expanding output and develop production technology here, the newspaper said, citing company executives. The paper didn't give a timeframe for the investments. TSMC aims to build a factory to make 12-inch silicon wafers, Tzeng said. The company on Jan. 27 said it planned to spend about US$2.6 billion this year for expansion, 8 percent more than it invested last year.

■ DaimlerChrysler pushing sales
DaimlerChrysler AG is aiming to sell 4,500 Mercedes-Benz vehicles, 800 cars for Chrysler and Jeep brands, as well as 500 Smart compacts in Taiwan this year, Wolfram Geisler, president and CEO of DaimlerChrysler Taiwan Ltd, said yesterday at a press gathering. Geisler said Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler still maintained a very strong position in the local passenger car market last year, and he expect good opportunities for these two brands this year following the recent introduction of new Mercedes-Benz CLS and Chrysler 300C luxury sedans. The US-German automaker also plans to launch the revamped model of Mercedes-Benz M-Class, the all-new compact sports tourer B-Class, the new S-Class, as well as the new Jeep Grand Cherokee, Geisler said.

■ NT dollar gains
The New Taiwan dollar maintained strength against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.071 to close at NT$30.879 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$799 million, compared with US$947 million last Friday.

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