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Nanya, Qimonda in talks

Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation's second-biggest memory chipmaker, may buy out Qimonda AG's stake in their Inotera Memories Inc chipmaking venture after falling prices forced the German partner to scale back investments.

"Our plan is for Inotera to have an investor with a controlling stake," Nanya senior vice president Moor Chen (陳宏模) said by telephone after the Commercial Times reported yesterday that Nanya plans to acquire Qimonda's 35 percent stake.

"We may buy the stake from Qimonda," he said.

Other options include Qimonda buying Nanya's stake or both companies lowering their holdings, Chen said, declining to say when a decision will be made.

Falling memory chip prices forced Nanya and Qimonda, who formed Inotera in 2003 as a joint venture, to post losses in their latest financial quarters.

Munich-based Qimonda, a unit of Infineon Technologies AG, said in January that it slashed this year's capital spending budget by 250 million euros (US$388 million) after freezing plans to build a chip plant in Singapore.

Discussions between Nanya and Qimonda began after Micron Technology Inc, the largest US maker of memory chips, agreed to form a venture with Nanya this month, Chen said.

The new venture will produce chips using Micron's so-called "stack" manufacturing technology. Inotera manufactures chips using Qimonda's "trench" technology.

Asian corporate defaults to rise

The risk of corporate debt defaults in Asia has increased because of the global credit turmoil, a weakening US dollar and the slowdown of the US economy, Standard & Poor's said.

Companies from Southeast Asia that have borrowed heavily in the past are likely to struggle as their economies rely on exports to the US, S&P said in a statement yesterday.

"While strong domestic consumption and intra-regional trade should help most sectors absorb external shocks, country-specific issues could undermine the credit quality of some companies," S&P's Hong Kong-based credit analyst Ryan Tsang (曾宜景) wrote.

In China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, slowing trade, difficulty in selling debt or borrowing from banks remain key risks to the borrowers, S&P said.

JAL to increase charters

Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) said yesterday it will increase international charter flights from Tokyo's domestic Haneda Airport by nearly half in the next financial year, seeing growing demand to Asian destinations.

JAL said it planned 400 international charter flights from Haneda in the financial year that starts next week, up from 280 now.

JAL seeks to tap growing demand among older travellers for direct flights to "tourist destinations mainly in Asia," spokesman Hirokazu Inoue said.

JAL aims to boost the number of passengers for the international charter flights by 50 percent, he said.

NT dollar gains on exports

The New Taiwan dollar gained for a sixth day after a Ministry of Economic Affairs report showed export orders rose more than forecast, adding to speculation the economy will withstand a global economic slowdown.

The currency touched the highest level since October 1997 after the ministry said on Monday that orders rose 18.08 percent last month -- the fastest pace in three months and up from 16.89 percent in January.

The NT dollar advanced 0.4 percent to NT$30.10 against the greenback yesterday on turnover of US$1.696 billion, the Taipei Forex Inc said, after touching a high of 30.082.
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