Operations continue: Taipower
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said yesterday it did not expect any impact from the tsunami caused by the earthquake off Japan.
Public relations officer Huang Huei-yu (黃惠予) said the firm’s two operating nuclear power plants on the northern coast were safe, as they were designed to withstand waves as high as 12m.
Separately, the utility yesterday sold NT$14.75 billion (US$500 million) of bonds in two tranches, Liu Wen-guang (劉文光), another public relations officer, said by telephone.
The company will pay 1.6 percent annual interest on the NT$5.75 billion seven-year debt priced yesterday and 1.69 percent interest on NT$9 billion of 10-year notes, Liu said.
AUO plans NT$0.40 payout
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s second-largest LCD panel maker, plans to pay a cash dividend of NT$0.40 per share for last year, the Hsinchu-based company said in a stock exchange statement yesterday.
AU Optronics said in a separate filing that it purchased NT$1.03 billion in equipment from Marketech International Corp (帆宣系統科技) from June 4, 2009, to yesterday.
Acer, Asustek earn top rankings
PC makers Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) were awarded top retail rankings on Thursday by market researcher GfK.
GfK collected data from more than 4,000 retail outlets in Taiwan, and 14 companies received its No. 1 awards for 2010 in different categories.
Acer topped the rankings in the “desktop computers” category with a 43.9 percent market share, marking the sixth consecutive year it has received the award since GfK began tracking the sector in 2005.
The company also had the highest market share in the “mobile computers” category with 34.4 percent, representing the second consecutive year it has taken the first ranking in the category.
Asustek won the No. 1 ranking in the “monitors” category this year, for the second straight year. GfK did not release its market share figure.
HP Taiwan names new officer
Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) yesterday said in a statement that Jon Wang (王嘉昇) would succeed Felix See (施志國) as managing director and vice president of enterprise business for HP Taiwan.
Wang joins HP from Unisys Taiwan, where he spent 20 years in a variety of senior management, product and business development roles to become general manager in 2006.
He will be responsible for overseeing overall operations, driving overall revenue and profitability for HP Taiwan.
See, from Hong Kong, took the helm of HP Taiwan in October 2008 and resigned from the company in December.
Car market grew last year
The nation’s car market boomed last year, with 77,000 cars imported for a total value of NT$69.04 billion, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Thursday.
The number and value of imported cars increased 39.4 percent and 49.5 percent respectively compared with 2009 figures, the DGBAS said in a statement.
Domestic vehicle production also rose 33.5 percent year-on-year to 301,000 vehicles last year. Of these, about 35,000 were sold abroad for an export value of NT$14.4 billion — more than double the year-earlier level, the agency said.
NT dollar takes a dip
The New Taiwan dollar fell NT$0.093 to close at NT$29.599 against the US dollar on turnover of US$908 million yesterday.
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