■ Copyright
D-Link wants to settle: VIA
VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子), the nation's second-biggest designer of semiconductors, said D-Link Corp (友訊科技) expects Via to pay NT$100 million (US$3 million) to settle allegations that its chairwoman and its president stole software developed by D-Link. VIA chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) and president Chen Wen-chi (陳文琦), who both appeared in the Taipei District Court on Monday, will cooperate with the investigation, VIA said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The court case will have no immediate impact on VIA's financial performance, the company said. VIA ended two quarters of losses last year with a NT$46.1 million profit in the three months to Sept. 30. D-Link hopes to settle the dispute amicably, said the company's lawyer, Chang Yi-ming (張冀明). D-Link makes networking equipment used to help personal computers exchange data and other information.
■ Computers
Wistron sees strong sales
Wistron Corp (緯創資通), a former Acer Inc computer manufacturing unit, expects its sales this year to rise by 40 percent from last year to NT$108 billion (US$3.2 billion) on demand for notebook PCs, according to chairman Simon Lin (林憲明). Wistron's shipments of laptop PCs, which it makes for customers such as Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co, will soar by about 75 percent to 3.5 million units, the company said. Acer plans to cut its stake in Wistron to 32 percent from 37 percent by selling Wistron stock overseas this year. Acer has inflated profit with one-time gains from selling shares in companies such as Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大), BenQ Corp (明基電通) and Ambit Microsystems Corp (國電).
■ Shipping
Kaohsiung to stay open
The Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau will continue to provide normal information services during the Lunar New Year holiday from today to Jan. 26, bureau officials said Monday. The officials said that the bureau has opened an online service to provide information around the clock on its operations, including warehousing, business, shipping and navigation, berth instruction, vessels at port, their status, arrivals and departures.
■ Stocks
Foreigners buy more
Foreign investors increased their possession of Taiwan-ese stocks in the past year with total ownership amounting to NT$3.158 trillion (US$92.8 billion) as of Jan. 16, according to statistics released Monday by the Taiwan Stock Ex-change Corp (TESC). The ownership is an increase of NT$1.514 trillion, or 92.06 percent, over the year before, a TSEC spokesman said. Foreign investors bought NT$186.65 billion worth of Taiwanese stocks and sold NT$105.54 billion worth of them during the period between the first trading day of this year and Jan. 16, he added.
■ Currency
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar weakened as the halt in stock market trading for holidays this week dampend demand for the currency from international investors. The currency also fell after the yen dropped against the US dollar in New York trading, fanning concern Taiwan's exports will be less price-competitive, compared with Japanese goods. The NT dollar declined NT$0.039, or 0.1 percent, to close at NT$33.719 on the Taipei forex market. Turnover was US$652 million.
■ Aviation
Dragonair taking on Cathay
No. 2 Hong Kong carrier Dragonair said yesterday that it will compete with its larger part-owner Cathay Pacific Airways on one more route by launching flights to Tokyo in April. Dragonair will fly five times a week between Hong Kong and Tokyo, compared to five times daily for Cathay. Cathay owns about 18 percent of Dragonair and they used to cooperate without competing. Dragon-air began competing with Cathay on Hong Kong-Taipei routes in 2002, and Cathay later secured the right to compete with Dragonair on some of its routes into China. Dragonair also competes now with Cathay on flights into Bangkok but has not yet begun using rights it acquired to fly into Seoul, Manila and Sydney -- all sites served by Cathay.
■ Hong Kong
Cellphone accounts soar
Hong Kong, famed for its love of gadgets and tech-nology, now has more mobile-phone accounts than people, according to official figures released on Monday. The territory of 6.8 million people has 7.07 million mobile-phone accounts, according to figures from the Telecommunications Authority. The figure, which includes pre-paid SIM cards, has risen sharply over the past year despite an econo-mic slump as the city embraces advances in phone technology. Phones that take digital pictures have proved particularly popular. Many people have more than one mobile phone and nearly 2.7 million pre-paid SIM cards are currently in use. Despite predictions early last year that the mobile-phone mar-ket had reached saturation point, the number of accounts leapt last year.
■ Steel
China fuels Japan's output
Nippon Steel Corp and other Japanese steelmakers boosted output by a com-bined 2.6 percent last year to cater to growing demand from China, the world's biggest consumer of the alloy. Steel output in Japan, the second-largest producer, rose to 110.5 million tonnes last year, the Brussels-based International Iron and Steel Institute said in a report on world steel production. Japan produced 107.75 million tonnes of crude steel in 2002. Nippon Steel, JFE Holdings, Sumitomo Metal Industries and other Japan-ese steelmakers increased production to meet a short-age in China of steel used in making automobiles and home appliances. The price of hot-rolled steel coils imported by China surged 26 percent to US$312 per tonne last year, from an average US$247.65 per tonne in 2002, according to Metal Bulletin Inc. China, the world's largest maker of crude steel, produced a record 220.1 million tonnes last year, accounting for 23 percent of global output. The 21 percent increase in Chinese steel production wasn't enough to meet demand.
■ Internet
IFPI eyes European suits
The International Federa-tion of the Phonographic Industry plans to start legal action against illegal music file sharers outside the US, the Wall Street Journal Europe said, citing Allen Dixon, the federation's general counsel. Figures due to be released by the group this week are likely to show a decline in illegal downloads in the US since the recording industry started litigation against individual file- sharers last year, the paper said. Non-US residents are responsible for more than 10 percent of music files available illegally on the Internet, according to the paper.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
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