■SEMICONDUCTORS
NXP BV wants to go public
Dutch computer chip maker NXP BV said it would seek an initial public offering of its shares. In a press statement on Saturday, NXP says it has registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to sell shares, a preliminary step toward an IPO. NXP is the former chipmaking arm of Philips Electronics. Philips sold an 80.1 percent stake in NXP to a consortium of private investors led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co for 4.3 billion euros (US$6.3 billion) in August 2006. Since then, the company has slashed jobs and sold operations. NXP says it had 27,000 employees and sales of US$3.8 billion last year. The company has not yet set a target for the size of the share issue. NXP says it will use proceeds from the offering to cut debt.
■PERU
Trade surplus shoots up
The Andean country posted a trade surplus of US$798 million in February, up from US$271 million in the same month a year earlier because of higher prices for its key metals exports, the central bank said on Saturday. Exports during the second month of the year totaled US$2.67 billion, up 47 percent from February last year, the monetary authority said. Imports rose by a slower 21 percent to US$1.87 billion. “This increase in the trade surplus is due to high international prices for the main commodities,” the bank said in a statement. Peru is a leading global metals producer.
■TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
Economy grows slightly
After four consecutive quarters of decline in the oil rich Caribbean nation’s economy, recent data from the country’s Central Bank point to slight growth in the country’s economy. The bank’s latest monetary policy report, which was published last week, suggests that “real GDP increased by 0.8 percent [year-on-year] in the last quarter of 2009.” The latest data showed “available indicators suggest that the small improvement in economic activity recorded in the last quarter of 2009 may have continued into the first quarter of 2010.” Growth for this year is projected at 2 percent. The recovery in the country’s economy is related almost entirely to the “improved output performance of the energy sector, particularly in petrochemicals and natural gas,” the report says.
■MINERALS
China could boost imports
China, the world’s largest zinc producer, could boost imports of the metal ore and concentrate as smelters expand, Li Xialin, vice president of Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet Co (深圳中金岭南公司), said in an interview in Beijing yesterday. China’s zinc producers could add 500,000 tonnes of smelting capacity this year and add 600,000 further next year, he said. The country’s total capacity was about 5 million tonnes at the end of last year.
■DUBAI
Market index declines
The Dubai Financial Market General Index declined 2.2 percent, the most since April 8, to 1,776.36 at 12:11pm in the emirate. Abu Dhabi’s measure lost 1.1 and Qatar’s gauge dropped 1 percent. Ahli Bank SAOG gained 1.5 percent, the most in almost a week, to 0.272 rial. The Omani provider of long-term loans for property construction and home purchases said first- quarter profit more than doubled to 3.15 million rials (US$8.2 million), the local bourse said in a statement yesterday.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
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