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■ China van venture formed
Taiwan's China Motor Corp (中華汽車), DaimlerChrysler AG from Germany and China's Fujian Motor Industrial Group (福汽集團) will form a joint venture making vans in China, a spokeswoman for the Taiwanese firm said yesterday. Fujian Motor will take a 50 percent stake in the new project, at Fuzhou in China's southeastern Fujian Province, while DaimlerChryler AG will share 33 percent and the Taiwan partner 17 percent, the spokeswoman said. "We expect the joint venture to be set up by the end of this year after obtaining approval from Chinese authorities," she said. DiamlerChrysler will provide production know-how for the joint venture, to be named DaimlerChrysler Vans (China), and the Taiwan firm will take charge of marketing, eyeing China and Southeast Asian countries, she added. The new company is scheduled to begin commercial production in early 2007 and reach its capacity of 40,000 units in 2013.

■ Third-quarter Hon Hai profits rise
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Taiwan's largest electronics company, had a 40 percent rise in third-quarter profit on demand for game consoles and music players from customers such as Sony Corp and Apple Computer Inc. Net income rose to NT$11.1 billion (US$330 million) from NT$7.9 billion a year earlier, according to figures derived by subtracting first-half earnings from nine-month numbers provided by the company to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. Demand for Sony's video-game player and Apple's iPod fueled sales of component and assembly provider Hon Hai, according to Kirk Yang (楊應超), an analyst at Citigroup Inc. The iPod is the best-selling music player in the US, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. Sony this month raised its full-year shipment forecast for game players by 7.7 percent.

■ Quanta posts profit gain
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's largest maker of notebook computers, posted its first profit gain in six quarters as sales increased. Third-quarter net income rose 10 percent to NT$3.4 billion (US$101 million), from NT$3.1 billion a year earlier, the figures were derived by Bloomberg by subtracting the six-month profit from the computer maker's nine-month earnings that announced yesterday. Sales at Quanta Computer rose 32 percent to NT$104 billion in the third quarter, from NT$78.9 billion a year earlier, according to the company's monthly releases.

■ CAL profits fall
China Airlines (華航), Taiwan's largest carrier, said yesterday its net profit in the nine months to September fell 70.2 percent from a year earlier, reflecting soaring global oil prices. Net profit for the period was NT$1.01 billion (US$30.05 million), compared with NT$3.39 billion a year earlier. In the nine months, sales of China Airlines rose 12.8 percent to NT$79.02 billion from NT$70.05 billion a year earlier. The soaring fuel prices also battered another local carrier EVA Airways (長榮航空), which said yesterday that its net profit in the January-September period fell 48.7 percent from a year earlier to NT$1.37 billion (US$40.77 million). Sales in the nine months, however, rose 6.97 percent from a year earlier to NT$64.29 billion dollars, the airliner said. "EVA Airways was no exception under fuel price impact," a company spokesman said.

■ NT dollar advances
The New Taiwan dollar advanced against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.055 to close at NT$33.551. A total of US$587 million changed hands during the day's trading.

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