■TELECOMS
3G subscriptions on the rise
The number of 3G mobile phone subscriptions in Taiwan has continued to increase rapidly, with subscriptions rising to 7.96 million to account for 32.5 percent of the total mobile phone subscriptions in the first quarter of this year, a report released this week by the Institute for Information Industry said. The number marks 15.2 percent growth from the previous quarter, when 3G subscriptions totaled 6.91 million, or 28.5 percent of the total mobile phone subscriptions, said the report authored by the institute’s Foreseeing Innovative New Digiservices division. In the first quarter of this year, mobile phone subscriptions jumped 0.7 percent quarter-on-quarter to hit 24.47 million, with the mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants standing at 106.5, the report says. Compared with the significant growth in 3G network subscriptions, 2G network subscriptions declined 5.5 percent quarter-on-quarter to 15.03 million, the report said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Nissan to expand in China
Japan’s Nissan Motor Co and its Chinese partner Dongfeng Motor Corp (東風汽車) plan to build a new engine factory in central China, a newspaper reported yesterday. The two firms will jointly invest more than ¥24 billion (US$224 million) in construction of the new plant, which will begin operation in March next year, the Nikkei business daily reported. The factory will be located near Zhengzhou Nissan Automobile Co, an assembly joint venture between the two automakers in Henan Province, the newspaper said. Nissan and Dongfeng are to set up a new joint venture in October to control the plant with an initial capital of ¥11 billion, the daily said. Dongfeng will control 51 percent of the venture and the 50-50 Dongfeng-Nissan venture taking the remaining 49 percent.
■ECONOMY
ASEAN to face ‘headwinds’
The major ASEAN economies are likely to deliver higher-than-expected growth this year, but the outlook for next year looks challenging, economists said in a report published in Singapore yesterday. Morgan Stanley raised its growth forecast for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia for this year to 5.6 percent from an earlier estimate of 5.5 percent. The investment bank kept intact its recently upgraded GDP growth projections for Malaysia at 5.7 percent and Thailand at 5.6 percent. It jacked up the forecast for Indonesia by half a point to 6 percent and cut Singapore’s from 5.1 percent to 4.3 percent, the breakdown in the Business Times said. ASEAN economies will “face headwinds” next year as higher inflation cuts into purchasing power and capital investment decisions, and export markets soften, the investment bank’s outlook said. It cut its GDP growth forecast for next year for the region to 5.1 percent, nearly 1 point.
■COMPUTERS
Ex-IBM worker admits theft
An executive who worked at IBM Corp for nearly a decade pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing trade secrets about the company’s pricing and trying to pass them off to his superiors at rival Hewlett-Packard Co when he took a job there. Atul Malhotra, 42, faces up to 10 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine on the single count of theft of trade secrets, prosecutors said on Friday. Malhotra entered his plea to the charge in US District Court in San Jose, California, where sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 29. Malhotra worked from 1997 to 2006 as a director of sales and business development in the Armonk, New York-based IBM’s global services division.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
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