■ Mobile Phones
Sony Ericsson's profits fall
Cellphone giant Sony Ericsson yesterday reported tumbling profits for the first quarter, with first-quarter net profit falling to 32 million euros (US$41 million) from 82 million euros a year ago, and from 55 million euros in the last quarter of last year. The number of units shipped increased to 9.4 million from 8.8 million, but a falling average selling price meant that sales declined to 1.289 billion euros from 1.338 billion in the first quarter of last year. Sony Ericsson said that the entire mobile-phone market had weakened in the quarter, partly because overhanging inventories made for a more competitive environment. But the company also admitted to its own shortcomings, notably a lack of new phone models.
■ Electronics
TI expects growth in Japan
Texas Instruments expects solid growth in Japan, where the US chipmaker can count on surging demand for super-fast cellphones and digital TVs, the company's Japan unit president said yesterday. TI's strength in Japan comes from its partnership with the nation's major electronics makers and working together on developing products, said Toshiyuki Yamasaki, who was appointed president earlier this month. Dallas-based TI recorded ?323.9 billion (US$3 billion) in sales in Japan for the fiscal year ending December last year, a record high for the Japan operation, he said. Last month, TI lowered its first-quarter profit and sales outlook because of lower-than-expected demand for its display technology used in televisions and projectors called Digital Light Processing (DLP). TI chief executive Richard Templeton said in Tokyo that's temporary and demand for DLP is expected to grow.
■ Pipelines
Enbridge signs China deal
Enbridge Inc, one of Canada's largest pipeline companies, signed a marketing agreement with the PetroChina Co on Thursday that would support a planned US$2 billion pipeline linking Alberta's oil sands to the Pacific. Under the agreement, the two companies would work together to find Chinese customers for about 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day, about half the capacity of the pipeline Enbridge plans to build. Jim Rennie, a spokesman for Enbridge in Calgary, Alberta, said that no supply contracts have been signed with PetroChina, but that the agreement is an important step in promoting the 1,158km pipeline project, which would move oil to ports in British Columbia, and from there to Asia or California. If it is finally built, the pipeline would begin operation in 2010. PetroChina is controlled by the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.
■ Automakers
DaimlerChrysler stays silent
DaimlerChrysler AG yesterday refused to comment on a Financial Times report that some of its largest shareholders have been approached by private equity firms about acquiring their stakes in a bid to break up the automaker. The London-based newspaper, citing an unidentified senior investment bank official, reported yesterday that the Stuttgart-based automaker's major shareholders, including Deutsche Bank and the Kuwait Investment Authority, have been approached about selling their stakes several times. Deutsche Bank holds a 10.4 percent stake in the German-American car maker, while the Kuwait Investment Authority holds a 7.2 percent stake. The paper said that both companies had rejected the offers.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique