■ Water rationing looms
The government said it will start water rationing in the north of Taiwan next week after supplies in reservoirs fell to "serious" levels.
Water for irrigation of 60,740 hectares of farmland in northern Taiwan will be halted, the Water Resources Agency under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a report on its Web site.
Vice Economic Minister Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) will meet representatives of the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, the headquarters of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and other electronics makers, and of another industrial park outside Taoyuan city to plan measures to deal with the drought.
■ Picvue expects loss to narrow
Picvue Electronics Ltd (碧悠電子), which makes monochrome displays used in hand-held computers and mobile phones, said it expects its 2004 loss to narrow to NT$383.4 million (US$11.3 million).
The company will post a 2003 loss of NT$1.3 billion, compared with a NT$636.6 million deficit in 2002, Picvue said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp.
Picvue said its sales this year will rise by 53.5 percent to NT$6.6 billion from a year earlier.
■ Chi Mei's US exports threatened
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), Taiwan's second-largest flat-panel maker, said France asked the US to stop imports of screens made by the company because of alleged patent violations.
The Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique which filed lawsuit with a US federal court in San Jose, California, claimed Chi Mei infringed on two patents for technology used to design and make screens for computers and TVs.
The French organization in May said it was seeking unspecified damages from Chi Mei, Dell Inc, Samsung Electronics Co, Sun Microsystems Inc and ViewSonic Corp in a federal lawsuit filed in Delaware. The US patents, awarded to the French agency in 1987 and 1989, protect a design for displays used in flat-panel video monitors, the lawsuit said.
"The French agency is trying to come back in San Jose," said Eddie Chen (陳炎松), a Chi Mei spokesman. "The Delaware case was overruled."
■ CAL sees profit rising
China Airlines Co (中華航空) expects its net profit will rise 74 percent this year from last, the company said yesterday.
The higher 2004 net profit -- forecast to total NT$3.04 billion (US$89.43 million) -- is expected because the past year has been a tough one for China Airlines due to the outbreak of SARS as well as the war in Iraq and ongoing threats of terrorism.
For last year, China Airlines predicted a net profit of NT$1.75 billion (US$51.48 million).
The airline said it expects revenue of NT$89.07 billion (US$2.62 billion) this year, up from NT$74.74 billion (US$2.19 billion) projected in 2003.
The company also predicted a pretax profit of NT$3.15 billion (US$92.66 million) for this year, compared with NT$1.60 billion (US$47.06 million) estimated for 2003.
■ NT dollar ends year stronger
The New Taiwan dollar rose for a second year, and it had its strongest close in more than seven weeks, as overseas investors bought more of the nation's stocks.
Fund managers abroad plowed 20 percent more into Taiwan's equity market last year from 2002, buying NT$549 billion (US$16 billion) of shares.
Yesterday, the NT dollar rose NT$0.055, or 0.2 percent, to NT$33.978 against its US counterpart, its highest close since Nov. 10. The currency climbed 1.9 percent this year.
Turnover was US$930 million.
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