Hsieh accepts `shit' resignation
Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday that he has approved the resignation of Steve Shieh (謝壽夫), chairman of First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), while there has been no decision yet as to Shieh's successor.
Hsieh made the remark while fielding a question by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Lee Sen-zong (李顯榮) during a legislative answer-and-question session.
Shieh offered to step down after a controversy erupted when he used the English expletive "shit" during a heated exchange with another KMT lawmaker, Alex Fei (費鴻泰) last Thursday.
LCDs to replace old TVs
Shipments of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) televisions are expected to expand rapidly to 46.8 million units in 2008 from an estimate of 8.8 million in 2004 on the road to replace traditional cathode-ray-tub (CRT) sets, market researcher DisplaySearch projected yesterday.
In 2008, sleek LCD TVs will account for about a quarter of overall 213.1 million TV sets shipped. Last year, the more expensive TV sets merely made up a small 5 percent of the total TV market.
During the four-year period, shipments of boxy CRT TVs will continue to fall to around 145.7 million units from 164.8 million in 2004. Penetration rate will drop to 68 percent from 90 percent.
Global TV shipments are expected to increase at a 4 percent composite average annual rate to 213.1 million units in 2008, from 181.9 million units in 2004.
Teco lost NT$400 million
Teco Electric & Machinery Co (東元電機), a leading television vendor in Taiwan, said yesterday that it swung into losses of NT$400 million last year resulting from NT$800 million in asset impairment.
The result came as Teco board decided on an early adoption of stricter accounting rules. The rules, Financial Accounting Standard 35, require local companies to post 2005 financial results by restating their idled assets, or goodwill from mergers.
Teco previously said it would earn NT$390 million last year.
Hynix may partner Taiwan
Hynix Semiconductor Inc of South Korea may partner Taiwan companies such as Power Quotient International Co (勁永國際) to boost its NAND flash memory business.
Power Quotient Chairwoman Jance Lu (呂美月) said the company is in talks with an international memory chipmaker to form a strategic partnership and denied that the negotiating party was Hynix.
Shares of Power Quotient, which makes computer memory modules and flash memory storage deveices, have been restricted to cash transaction only on March 18 by the Taiwan Stock Exchange, amid allegations the company inflated revenue figures for last year.
Screen sales fail expectations
Sales of organic screens used in mobile phones and MP3 players are failing to meet projections amid a slow increase in production, researcher ISuppli Corp said.
Sales of organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, displays will rise 51 percent to US$615 million this year. That's 20 percent less than its industry projection six months ago. Shipments are poised to jump 92 percent to 60 million units, which would be 13 percent less than a September projection.
"It is clear at this point that (OLED) manufacturing is ramping up slowly," said Kimberly Allen, the author of ISuppli's latest semiannual report on the industry.
NT trades lower
The New Taiwan dollar traded lower yesterday against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.054 to close at NT$31.609 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
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