■ China Steel plans mine stake
China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan's leading steel maker, said yesterday its board of directors has approved a plan to acquire a five percent stake in a coal mine from Australia's Q Coal Pty Ltd for A$16.54 million (US$12.9 million).
The two firms will jointly develop the coal mine, with the Taiwanese firm also bearing 5 percent of the required capital expenditure, a company statement said.
The mine is estimated to have 47 million tonnes of coal, China Steel said. The company said the joint development plan is still under discussion, declining to disclose more details.
■ Carrefour Taiwan expands
Carrefour Taiwan, the nation's largest hypermarket operator, is scheduled to open its eighth store in Taipei City on Chongqing N Road, near the site of the old Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市) tomorrow, the company said.
This will be its 47th outlet nationwide after it closed down the small-sized Pitan (碧潭) store early this month as its customer base overlapped with its Sindian (新店) outlet.
The hypermarket giant expects to rake in sales amounting to NT$68 billion this year, a massive 23.6 percent from last year's NT$55 billion. It added 11 stores this year, including the six outlets taken over from smaller rival Tesco in June.
However, sales of like-for-like stores, which have been operating for over a year, declined 10.3 percent in the third quarter, affected by a tightening of consumer credit, according to Carrefour's Web site.
■ Compal in second place
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) has increased its share of worldwide notebook computer production and remains in second place behind Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), according to DisplaySearch.
Compal raised its share of production to 20 percent in the third quarter from 17 percent in the previous three months, the Texas-based researcher said. Quanta holds 23 percent of the world's notebook manufacturing output.
Taiwanese companies made 83 percent of the 20.46 million notebook computers shipped in the third quarter, DisplaySearch said.
Wistron Corp (緯創) accounted for 13 percent of notebook production, followed by Inventec Co (英業達) with 10 percent and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), with 8 percent, according to DisplaySearch statistics.
■ Shin Kong to issue REAT
Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) announced yesterday that it was scheduled to issue a third real estate asset trust, or REAT, with a size equivalent to NT$1.392 billion (US$42.7 million) in the first quarter next year.
The investment targets include two office buildings in Taipei City and one office building in Taipei County's Banciao (板橋), which the insurer claimed all enjoy good geographic advantages, according to a press statement.
Small face values at NT$100,000 would be issued as well to allow retail investors to participate in the investment that had diversified risks and guarantees from banks.
■ Customs chief appointed
The Ministry of Finance yesterday announced that Chien Liang-chi (簡良機), director general of the Department of Customs Administration, would be promoted to chief of the Directorate General of Customs. Chien is to fill in the vacancy left by Yu Shaw-wu (俞邵武), who has been named as the nation's new representative to Brunei.
■ NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar dropped against its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.03 to close at NT$32.587 on the Taipei Forex Inc. Turnover was US$613 million.
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