■ LCD displays
Fuji to build new plant
The world's number two film-maker Fuji Photo said yesterday that it will spend more than US$950 million to build a new factory in Japan to make parts for liquid crystal displays (LCDs). The company will spend more than ¥100 billion (US$950 million) for the factory, which will come on line by the end of 2006 in Kumamoto prefecture in southern Japan. "We have decided [to build the new plant] to deal with an expanding market for LCD televisions as computer monitors and laptop PCs become larger," the company said in a statement. The factory will produce parts related to polarizing sheet film, a core part of LCDs, the company said.
■ laptop computers
Toshiba to swap modules
Toshiba Corp said it will exchange defective memory modules in 650,000 of its laptop computers worldwide starting yesterday. The faulty modules, supplied by a third party, could cause blue screens, lockups or data corruption, although the probability of the problems was "extremely low," the major laptop maker said in a statement. An online program could be downloaded to detect which of the 25 models made since April 2002 had problems, it said. No computers are currently being made with the faulty parts, a spokeswoman said. The exchange program was free to customers and would end in April, it said. The company did not say how much it would spend on the program.
■ Airlines
AirAsia sets issue price
Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia said yesterday it has set the issue price for the institutional portion of its initial public offering (IPO) at 1.25 ringgit (US$0.33) per share and the retail portion at 1.16 ringgit, well below the indicated price of 1.40 ringgit. The institutional portion comprised 560.41 million shares while the public portion of the IPO was 140.1 million shares. The institutional tranche was 3.5 times subscribed, with 392.3 million placement shares allocated to international institutions and 168.1 million allocated to domestic institutions, AirAsia said in a statement. It said the public portion represented the largest ever retail tranche for a Malaysian IPO and was 1.5 times subscribed. AirAsia said it raised 717.4 million ringgit from the IPO. It will list on Nov. 22. AirAsia, which has a fleet of 24 Boeing 737 aircraft, currently operates 322 flights a week from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to 22 destinations.
■ Auto industry
VW workers stage strike
Thousands of workers at German car maker Volkswagen began another series of warning strikes yesterday to coincide with a sixth round of wage talks. Around 3,500 employees stopped work at the Baunatal plant near Kassel yesterday morning, and similar stoppages were underway or planned at other western German plants. Some 600 Volkswagen night-shift workers stayed off the job at the company's Braunschweig plant. Their numbers were set to be swelled by day-shift workers in a stoppage set to last four hours. Workers planned similar limited stoppages at VW factories in Salzgitter, Emden and Wolfsburg. The warning strikes, which began on Friday, are to press union demands for higher wages and job guarantees. A sixth round of talks was due to begin later in the day in Hanover. Differences between the two sides had remained unresolved after a fifth round of talks Friday on a new wage deal for the firm's 103,000 VW workers.
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 Xinyi A13 Department Store 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 at
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
‘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)