■ New car registrations rise
New car registrations rose 20.7 percent to 371,488 vehicles in the first nine months from a year ago, suggesting consumer spending won't slow any time soon by rising oil prices. New car registrations, however, dropped nearly 10 percent to 33,383 vehicles last month from the year earlier, according to statistics from the Ministry of Trans-portation and Communications. As automobile companies start to launch new models this month, the total number of new car registrations is expected to reach 470,000 vehicles this year, industry sources forecast. The number of new car registrations fell below 500,000 in 1996 amid a soured economy. The number continued falling to 347,000 units in 2001 before turning better last year to above 400,000 units. Toyota Motor Corp launched its Wish recreational vehicles last month and Yulon-Nissan Motor Corp starts to marketing the new Teana sedans this month. China Motor Corp's (中華汽車) Mitsubishe Grunder sedans and Ford Lio Ho Motor Co's (福特六和) Focus small passenger cars will be introduced into the market next month and December, respectively, according to companies.
■ HP's Fiorina to visit Asia
Hewlett-Packard Co chief executive Carly Fiorina will visit Taiwan, Japan and South Korea this month to meet suppliers and make presentations, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing uniden-tified company officials. Fiorina, who will arrive in Taipei on Oct. 14 and stay one day, will probably meet key suppliers, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the report said. Hewlett-Packard will probably buy US$16 billion in goods from Taiwan this year, about 8 percent more in dollar terms than a year earlier, the paper said. The company's main rival, Dell Inc, will purchase about US$12 billion worth of products, the paper said.
■ LCD price slide may persist
The decline in prices of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) used in computers and televisions may continue in early this month, the Taipei-based WitsView Technology Corp (聯景科技) said in an e-mailed report. The prediction comes after some suppliers said they expect the slide to halt. The average price for benchmark computer-monitor screens measuring 17 inches diagonally will drop by 2.6 percent to US$190 and by 3 percent to US$160 for a 15-inch panel by the middle of the month, WitsView said. The price decline is slowing, the researcher said. The price drop "has become less severe than that in July and August," WitsView analyst Henry Wang said in the report. The pace of price declines for screens used in televisions may increase, WitsView said. "Panel makers are adopting an aggressive strategy by offering attractive prices,"' Wang said.
■ Forex reserves hit new record
Foreign exchange reserves rose to a record US$233.01 billion (NT$7.9 trillion) at the end of last month, the central bank said yesterday. It was the 37th straight month of record reserves, with last month's level beating August's US$231.61 billion. The central bank said the increase last month was due to gains in the value of the euro against the US dollar, which increased the value of the bank's euro holdings, as well as returns from foreign exchange reserves management.
■ NT dollar dips
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.042 to close at NT$33.918 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$472 million.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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