■ Japanese to build new factory
Dai Nippon Printing, Japan's largest printing company, plans to invest ¥20 billion (US$165 million) in producing semiconductor parts in Taiwan, a newspaper said yesterday.
Dai Nippon has already acquired 10,000m2 of land in northern Taiwan to build a new factory to produce photomasks, which are used to print circuits on wafers, the Nikkei business daily said.
Construction is scheduled to begin in April with operations expected to begin in May 2008, the daily said. Sales at the plant are projected at ¥5 billion for the year to March 2009 and ¥12 billion the following year.
■ Unemployment rate falls
Taiwan's jobless rate fell to 3.81 percent last month, the lowest rate in eight months, as the number of first time jobseekers and resignations dropped, the government statistics agency said yesterday.
The jobless rate was 3.86 percent in November.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, Taiwan's jobless rate was 3.92 percent last month, up from 3.89 percent the previous month, said the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
For the whole of last year, Taiwan's average jobless rate was 3.91 percent, the lowest after 2000's 2.99 percent and down from 4.13 percent in 2005.
■ Six coffee brands banned
Health authorities in Taipei announced yesterday that they have banned six brands of coffee mixed with an extract from tongkat ali -- a plant grown in Southeast Asia that is claimed to have aphrodisiac properties.
Jiang Yu-mei (姜郁美), chief of the Food and Drug Division of the Taipei city government's Department of Health, told reporters that the stores selling tongkat ali coffee have been ordered to destroy the products in addition to paying fines of between NT$30,000 (US$911) and NT$150,000.
Health officials conducted an examination in November last year on 31 supermarkets, coffee shops and drugstores in Taipei, and found six coffee brands whose descriptions say they contain tongkat ali extract, she said.
Jiang said tongkat ali is not permitted by the Department of Health for use in food products as there is insufficient research into whether the herbal extract has possible harmful side effects.
■ Chunghwa Telecom re-rated
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (S&P) raised its long-term foreign currency corporate credit rating on Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan's biggest telecommunications operator, to "AA" from "AA-" on a consistently robust financial performance, the ratings agency said in a report yesterday.
S&P also removed Chunghwa Telecom from it's CreditWatch list, where it was placed with positive implications on Dec. 13, 2006.
"The rating action reflects Standard & Poor's evolving view of Chunghwa Telecom's credit profile, based on the company's very strong financial profile and reduced government ownership," credit analyst Daniel Hsiao (蕭黎明) said in the report.
Chunghwa Telecom's share of the mobile phone service market is still strong, at 35.6 percent, but increased competition in fixed-line services has led to heightened pressure on tariffs.
As a result, S&P expected the revenue and earnings contribution from Chunghwa Telecom's fixed-line business to decrease, while its wireless and data-related services are likely to take on more important roles, according to the report.
■ NT dollar lower
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar yesterday, decreasing NT$0.110 to close at NT$32.920 in Taipei, on turnover of US$920 million.
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