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■ UMC fined by exchange
The Taiwan Stock Exchange said it fined United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) NT$50,000 (US$1,507) for the chipmaker's delayed disclosure to the exchange about its restated results under US accounting standards. The delay had "significant impact on Taiwanese investors and its stock price," the exchange said in a statement on its Web site late on Thursday. "United Microelectronics has violated the disclosure procedure as it should have made the announcement before the markets start trading," the statement said. UMC, the world's second-largest made-to-order chipmaker, on Wednesday said its loss for last year under US standards was three times more than originally reported because of accounting errors. The announcement was first made in the US, where the company's US depositary receipts trade, at around 5.30am Taipei time. A similar statement to the regulator's bulletin board in Taiwan was not filed for another five hours.

■ NEC sets up Taiwan branch
The NEC Group of Japan has set up a branch in Taiwan, with the aim of grabbing a bigger share of Taiwan's business communications market worth NT$1 billion (US$30 million) per year, an NEC Taiwan executive announced yesterday. According to the executive, Taiwan has a strong and stable demand for business communications facilities, and the country has sound infrastructure, abundant human resources and a government with liberal economic policies. In addition, Taiwan is also a key manufacturing center of information industry products in the world, with many multinational companies as well as small and medium-sized businesses, he noted. The opening of the Taiwan branch was NEC's latest business expansion after the group has built a large sales and services network in the US and Australia.

■ Local competition feared
Taiwan manufacturing companies see their local counterparts and China as their main competitors in both the domestic market and overseas markets, according to the results of a recent survey by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Nearly 83 percent of Taiwan manufacturers polled said that their No. 1 competitor in the domestic market is their local counterparts, while 23 percent pointed to China, and 13 percent mentioned Taiwan businesses based overseas, the poll results show. Japan and South Korea are also viewed as rivals in the home market by 7.3 percent and 4.5 percent of Taiwan firms, respectively. China was considered by 44.6 percent of the Taiwan manufacturing companies as their leading rival in foreign markets, ahead of 27.5 percent which pointed to local counterparts and 21 percent which mentioned Taiwan businesses based overseas. Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asian countries, European countries, North American countries and Hong Kong are also on the list.

■ China Airlines forecasts profit
China Airlines (華航), Taiwan's largest carrier, is expected to post revenues of over NT$100 billion (US$3 billion) for this year, making it one of the few profitable carriers in the world, chairman Philip Wei (魏幸雄) said yesterday. In order to maintain its profitability, China Airlines has adopted various cost-effective measures, including re-routing its Europe-bound and India-bound flights to pass through China's airspace and reducing the number of unprofitable flights, Wei said.

■ NT dollar higher
The New Taiwan dollar gained against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.051 to close at NT$33.174. A total of US$1.06 billion changed hands during the day's trading.

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