Business Briefs

■ Water
Stable supplies predicted
Apart from some outlying islands, water supplies on Taiwan proper will remain secure at least until the end of next month, officials of the Water Resources Agency said on Friday. As the Shihmen reservoir, the major provider for northern Taiwan, as well as reservoirs in central Taiwan, are still at between 60 percent and 90 percent capacity, supplies on Taiwan proper are assured in principle until the end of next month, the officials said. Although the Tsengwen reservoir, the main supplier for southern Taiwan, is only at 13 percent capacity, the other providers in the region still have considerable reserves of water and predicted that supplies in the region will remain stable, they said.

■ Telecoms
Nokia Taiwan sets target
Nokia Taiwan aims to capture 30 percent of the local market, the Chinese-language Apple Daily said yesterday. It plans to produce at least 2 million cellphones this year, based on a projected domestic market of 7 million handsets, the daily quoted Cheng Tsung-kai (程宗楷), Nokia Taiwan's manager for clients and market operations, as saying. Nokia Taiwan plans to launch 20 to 30 new handset models, of which one or two models will be code division multiple access cellphones, Cheng said.

■ Mining
Alcan weighs options
Canadian aluminum giant Alcan said on Friday it "would consider" an improved takeover bid from US rival Alcoa but was weighing other options including its own hostile bid for Alcoa. In a regulatory filing two days after rejecting a US$33 billion offer, Alcan said it was keeping its options open. "If Alcoa brought forward a new proposal that made sense for our shareholders, we would consider it, but certainly not under the currently proposed terms and price ... That said, we are convinced that this proposed Alcoa-led acquisition of Alcan is not the right choice for Alcan shareholders and employees."

■ Beverages
New Coke float record set
With the help of a tanker truck, the world's largest beverage maker created a 10-tonne ice cream float to break a world record set by the company nearly a decade ago. An official from Guinness World Records was on hand on Friday to confirm that the 11,355-liter float, made from Vanilla Coke and ice cream, had indeed set the new world record. The Coca-Cola Co had also held the previous world record for largest ice cream float (7,890 liters) that was set in 1998 in Atlanta, Guinness representative Derek Musso said. A float is a cold carbonated beverage with ice cream floating on top.

■ Cameras
Pentax mulls changes
Pentax Corp, Japan's oldest single lens reflex camera maker, said it has made no decision on management change at this point, after a news report it would name Nobuaki Tanishima as president after a takeover by Hoya Corp. "No decision has been made at this point," Pentax said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange yesterday. Pentax on Friday told Sparx Group Co, its biggest shareholder, that Tanishima, in charge of corporate planning, would succeed president Takashi Watanuki, the Nikkei newspaper said earlier yesterday, without citing sources. Watanuki and seven other board members will resign to take responsibility for causing confusion over a merger with Hoya, the Nikkei reported on May 24.