Business Briefs

■ Yuan conversion begins
Taiwan for the first time yesterday allowed people on the offshore islets of Kinmen and Matsu to convert Chinese yuan and the local currency, despite lingering hostility between the two rivals, officials said. The state Bank of Taiwan's (台灣銀行) offices on Kinmen and Matsu, two fortified island groups near China's southeastern Fujian province, kicked off currency conversion businesses yesterday, the bank said. Under the new policy, both Taiwanese and Chinese travelling through the two islands are permitted to convert up to 20,000 Chinese yuan (US$2,476) each trip. The bank did not specify the amount of money converted on the first day of the new measures -- unveiled last month -- with the local currency and the renminbi trading in a range of 4.039-4.199. Exchange of the two currencies on the main island of Taiwan is still banned.

■ Broadcom buying local chips
Broadcom Corp started ordering microchips from United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) this year in a bid to ensure stable supply, the Commercial Times reported, without saying where it got the information. Broadcom now buys 45 percent of its chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), with the partnership expanding into chips that use so-called 90-nanometer advanced technology, the Taipei-based newspaper said. Chipmakers can make more chips per silicon wafer by shrinking chip sizes and helping to cut costs. Irvine, California-based Broadcom, which supplies semiconductors used in consumer electronics, is the third-largest US semiconductor maker.

■ BenQ plans new mobiles
BenQ Corp (明基), which took over Siemens AG's mobile-phone unit yesterday, will make further "changes" to the business that may include "expansion, but also cuts," BenQ Chairman K.Y. Lee (李焜耀) told Welt am Sonntag in an interview. BenQ Mobile (明基行動通訊), its new business group dedicated to wireless communications, officially started operations last Saturday. It is "clear that changes are necessary", the newspaper quoted him as saying in an e-mailed summary of an article for tomorrow's edition. Lee expects that the first phone model jointly developed by the German unit and its new Taiwan-based parent company will be ready by next year's Cebit trade fair in Germany, the newspaper said. The company is seeking to produce at least 30 new models annually, it quoted him as saying. BenQ Mobile is allowed to utilize the Siemens brand for 18 months as well as a combined brand for a transition period of up to five years starting Oct. 1. Both brands will coexist until 2006.

■ NT dollar still stable
Taiwan's central bank reiterated its view that the island's currency is "relatively stable," after the Taiwan dollar fell for the first day in three yesterday. That was the third time recently that the Central Bank of China has said it believes the Taiwan dollar is stable compared with other currencies. The bank issued a table that compared the Taiwan currency's 0.17 percent drop against its US counterpart yesterday with the yen's 0.55 percent decline and the euro's 0.53 percent fall. Taiwan's currency dropped NT$0.058 to close at NT$33.246 against the US currency, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The Taiwan dollar fell to NT$33.325 earlier, its lowest level since Nov. 4, 2004.