■ UMC looks to NT$100 bn sales
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest supplier of made-to-order chips, expects 2004 sales to rise more than 18 percent on demand from handset and telecommunications equipment makers, Chairman Robert Tsao (曹興誠) said.
Sales will exceed NT$100 billion (US$3 billion), Tsao said last night at an event to mark the end of the Lunar Year. Sales at the Taiwan company rose 12 percent last year to NT$84.8 billion, based on monthly company reports.
The NT$100 billion was given as encouragement to employees and shouldn't be considered an official forecast, spokesman Alex Hinnawi said in response to a Chinese-language newspaper report.
■ Hon Hai biggest revenue getter
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) toped the nation's 1,062 listed companies to post the highest net revenues of NT$328 billion in 2003, a report released by the China Credit Information Service Ltd (CCIS, 中華徵信所) found yesterday.
"Hon Hai took up the first place on the corporate revenue list in two consecutive years," the service company said in a written press statement, adding that Hon Hai gained NT$245 billion in revenues in 2002.
According to CCIS, the runner-up is Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), Taiwan's largest notebook computer maker, which gained NT$292 billion in revenues last year, or a 105 percent growth from one year earlier. The remaining corporations that made the highest revenues last year included Formosa Petrochemical Corp's (台塑石化) NT$236.5 billion, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (TSMC, 台積電) NT$202 billion and Chunghwa Telecom Co's (中華電信) NT$179 billion.
■ No. 2 in cellphone subscribers
Taiwan ranks second in the world and first in Asia in terms of number of cellular phone subscribers per capita, according to the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD).
Citing a report on 2003 world competitiveness published by the Lausanne-based International Institute for Management Development, a CEPD official said Taiwan had 881 mobile phone subscribers per 1,000 citizens, trailing only Italy with 910.2 subscribers, among the 30 countries surveyed with a population of over 20 million.
As for Internet charges during peak hours, Taiwan's were the second lowest in Asia, behind only Malaysia's, the official said.
According to the Institute for Information Industry, Taiwan's cyber population totaled 8.77 million as of the end of September, 2003, accounting for 39 percent of the country's total population.
At the same time, there were 2.7 million broadband subscribers in Taiwan, or 29 percent of the total number of the country's Internet users.
■ CSC unfazed by Chinese tariffs
China's decision to impose anti-dumping tariffs on cold-rolled steel imports will only have a limited impact on China Steel Corp (中鋼), a spokesman for the Kaohsiung-based company said Wednesday.
The official said that China's move will not negatively affect the domestic industry and predicted that the measure may even help lift the price of cold-rolled steel products in Taiwan.
The anti-dumping tariff imposed by the mainland authorities on China Steel products is 24 percent, while various other Taiwan-based steel producers will see a rate ranging from 6 percent to 14 percent.
■ NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar rose for the ninth day in 10 against its US counterpart, to close at NT$33.690 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$774 million.
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