Formosa denies consolidation
Taiwan's petrochemical giant Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) is planning to set up a holding company to control five of its major subsidiaries, a Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday.
The group will integrate operations of units Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), Formosa Chemical and Fiber Corp (台塑化纖), Formosa Taffeta Corp (福懋興業) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) under the root of the new holding company, the paper cited group vice chairman Wang Yung-tsai (王永在) as saying.
But a company official yesterday denied the report. "There's no such thing," said Jerry Lin, an acting spokesman for the company.
The planned holding company would have an initial capitalization of more than NT$210 billion, making it the largest listed company in Taiwan, overtaking Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (台積電) NT$199.2 billion, it said.
LNG shows interest
Australia LNG Pty, the company that markets liquefied natural gas from the North West Shelf project, said it may bid for a contract to supply 42 million tonnes of the fuel to Taiwan.
Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the world's third-largest publicly traded oil company, said last week it will bid for the contract with Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電). The state-run power company wants to use the gas at its proposed 4,000-megawatt Tatan (大潭) thermal power plant in northern Taiwan.
The tender requires the successful bidder to build a terminal and plant in Taiwan, and Shell said it will build the terminal.
The tender, which is the third attempted natural gas tender by Taipower, closes on Mar. 24 next year and involves 1.7 million tonnes a year. The date for delivery of first gas under the tender has been put back in the latest tender to the start of 2008, compared with 2005 in the earlier two.
Asia Optical base approved
The Industrial Development Bureau under the Ministry of Economic Affairs has approved an application from the Asia Optical group to set up an operational headquarters in Taiwan.
The approval means that Asia Optical will benefit from tax incentives set by the government and it is estimated that the group will be exempt from up to NT$140 million (US$4 million) in business income tax as of the third quarter of this year.
The revenue of Asia Optical exceeded NT$10.8 billion in the first 10 months of this year, setting a historic high.
TSMC chairman optimistic
Morris Chang (張忠謀), chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電), said over the weekend that he believes sales during the fourth quarter will come in slightly better than expected.
Chang emphasized that he is sticking with his original forecast of an industry lull lasting until the second quarter of next year.
The company had said that sales in the fourth quarter would drop as slowing demand cut its utilization rate to around 50 percent from 85 percent in the second quarter.
Chang also told staff the entry of new competitors in the made-to-order chip industry, meant TSMC had to continue to improve itself in order to stay ahead.
NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell against its US counterpart on the back of weaker Japanese yen, down NT$0.047 to close at NT$34.757 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
The turnover was US$257 million, compared with last Friday's US$444 million.
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