■ Mobile Phones
Germany gets 3G services
Vodafone Group Plc, the world's biggest mobile-phone company, began offering third-generation services in Germany and Portugal yesterday. The services, which allow fast Internet access and the ability to download video to phones, will be available through two handsets, made by Samsung Electronics Co and Sony Ericsson. Vodafone is among companies that spent more than US$100 billion since 2000 for licenses to offer new mobile services using the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standard, or UMTS.
■ Steel
Demand expected to grow
Global steel demand will increase 6.2 percent this year, led by Chinese consumption, the Brussels-based International Iron and Steel Institute said. Consumption of finished steel products will rise to 917 million tonnes from 864 million tonnes last year, the trade group said in an e-mailed statement. China will account for 263 million tonnes of that, 13 percent more than the previous year. Tighter raw material supplies may limit producers' ability to raise output enough to meet the expected demand, the institute said. Steel demand for next year is expected to rise by a further 4.5 percent to 958 million tonnes.
■ Chipmakers
Citigroup raises Hynix bid
A private equity unit of Citigroup Inc raised its bid for Hynix Semiconductor Inc's non-memory chip business by more than a fifth to about 925 billion won (US$790 million), people familiar with the offer said. Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners LP last week offered to pay about two-thirds in cash and the rest in assumed debt, said the people, who asked not to be identified. The company was to submit a written proposal yesterday, they said. Hynix rejected a Citigroup bid of about 750 billion won last month. A sale will help Hynix, the world's fourth-largest maker of computer memory chips, cut debt of 4.2 trillion won and fund a plant in China.
■ Chipmakers
Motorola may scrap sale
Motorola Inc may scrap plans to sell shares in Freescale Semiconductor Inc, the company's chip-making unit, the Silicon Strategies Web site reported, without saying where it obtained the information. Motorola originally planned its first public sale of the Freescale shares in the first quarter this year, the report said. The world's second-biggest mobile-phone maker, Motorola said on April 20 it may have costs of US$925 million to US$1.1 billion for Freescale. Motorola agreed in October to swap its US$1 billion chip factory in Tianjin, China, for a stake in Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manu-facturing International Corp, China's biggest chipmaker.
■ Share dealings
Gates fined US$800,000
The world's richest man must pay US$800,000 for violating federal rules by making a large investment in a pharmaceutical company. Bill Gates, the billionaire chairman of Microsoft Corp, agreed to the civil penalty for the violation arising from his 2002 acquisition of more than US$50 million in Icos Corp securities. The agreement settles a Justice Department lawsuit filed Monday in US District Court in Washington contending Gates should have complied with investment notification rules because he intended to participate in the company's business decisions.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary