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Business Quick Take

■ RETAIL

Turnover up 3.45 percent

Taiwan's retail industry's turnover was NT$3.27 trillion (US$203 billion) last year, up 3.45 percent from the year earlier, figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. The growth rate compares with 1.81 percent recorded for 2006, indicating a slight recovery in domestic demand, ministry officials said. The turnover of department stores rose 6.42 percent to NT$219.7 billion last year, emerging from negative growth in the previous year, they said. Supermarkets posted turnover of NT$95.4 billion, up 7.72 percent, while franchised convenience stores saw their turnover jump 2.03 percent to NT$198 billion, and the turnover of hypermarkets climbed 3.69 percent to NT$147.4 billion.



■ ELECTRONICS

Allied Material to sell plant

Debt-ridden Allied Material Technology Corp (展茂光電) has decided to sell a fifth-generation (5G) color filter plant to Japan's Toppan Printing Co for around NT$3.5 billion to NT$4 billion (US$113 million to US$129 million), the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday. Toppan Printing, Japan's biggest printing company by market value, is expected soon to apply to the Southern Taiwan Science Park Administration over the Allied Material plant purchase, said the report, which did not reveal where it obtained the information. Allied Material, the nation's second-largest maker of color filters for flat panels, last year sold a fourth-generation plant to Toppoly Optoelectronics Corp (統寶光電) for NT$1 billion, the report said.



■ TELECOMS

Disney phones enter Japan

Disney launched a mobile phone service in Japan yesterday in cooperation with Softbank Corp, entering the tough Japanese market following its withdrawal from the US. Walt Disney Japan, the local unit of Walt Disney Co, released three types of mobiles, made by Sharp, all covered with silhouette patterns of Mickey Mouse. They also have a special online feature that allows subscribers to jump to Disney Web sites, while Disney's iconic characters can be used on standby screens and to decorate e-mails free of charge.



■ OIL

Caracas to pan quota hike

Venezuela plans to oppose any increase in crude oil output quotas during the upcoming OPEC meeting, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Friday. The South American nation believes international markets are already well supplied and will urge OPEC to leave current production levels unchanged, Ramirez said. "There are geopolitical factors that are pressuring prices," including US-led wars in the Middle East and the threat of new violence in Nigeria, he said.



■ AUTOMAKERS

Strikes halt production

US automakers General Motors Corp (GM) and Chrysler LLC were forced to halt production at five assembly plants on Friday because of strikes at two key suppliers. Four truck plants which build two of GM's best-selling vehicles have already been hit by the strike, which began on Tuesday at GM's former subsidiary American Axle and Manufacturing Inc. More plants could close next week if the strike is not resolved, sources said. Chrysler, which also buys truck parts from American Axle, has so far been unaffected by that strike. But it was forced to idle a minivan plant in Windsor, Canada, on Friday afternoon, just hours after a strike began at TRW Automotive, which supplies suspension frames.
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