■ Dell's China shipments jump
Dell Inc, the world's biggest personal-computer maker, probably raised second-quarter shipments in China by about 30 percent, chief executive Kevin Rollins said. Dell's first-quarter sales of desktop PCs, laptops and servers grew 30 percent in China from a year earlier and "our guess is that it's going to be in the same range in the second quarter," Rollins told reporters yesterday in Hong Kong, referring to the three months ended June 30. Rollins is expanding in China, where growth is outpacing that of the US and Europe. The world's most populous country is now Dell's fourth-biggest market and its fastest growing. The company on Wednesday announced plans to open a second factory in China in the first quarter of next year. Dell still lags Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) in China and other Asian markets. Lenovo's share of the Chinese PC market fell to 25 percent in the first quarter from 28 percent in the previous quarter, while Dell's climbed to 8.4 percent from 7.5 percent, according to IDC.
■ Hardware output value rises
The output value of the nation's computer hardware in the first half of this year (at home and abroad) totaled US$34.4 billion, up by 16.8 percent compared with the year-earlier level, according to statistics released yesterday by the government. Personal computer production value accounted for the largest share of 38 percent -- worth US$13.13 billion for 20.39 million units -- tallies made public by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics show. The production value of 44.87 million monitors came second at US$8.67 billion, some 25 percent of the total, reflecting a slight decrease of 0.9 percent in annual growth rate. PDAs yielded the largest increase rate of 97.5 percent in annual output value, hitting US$1.43 billion for the first six months, while production amounts also rose by 60.8 percent to 6.19 million units.
■ Foxconn to make acquisition
Mobile phone maker Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康), whose shares were suspended from trading yesterday, will make a "small" acquisition from a connected party, a source familiar with the situation said. The source did not give further details on the deal, but the Hong Kong stock exchange said Foxconn's suspension was pending an announcement in relation to the sale of new shares. Foxconn's spokeswoman declined comment. Shares in Foxconn, the mobile handset arm of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), have risen 58.5 percent since their February listing.
■ Taipower lifts deficit estimate
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) will suffer a deficit of NT$4.7 billion (US$147 million) this year after a rise in the price of oil and natural gas announced by the Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) on Tuesday, a Taipower official said on Wednesday. Taipower officials noted that the price hikes for fuel oil and natural gas will increase the cost of electricity generation by NT$1.6 billion for the company from this month to December. Taipower originally estimated that it may suffer a deficit of NT$3.1 billion this year.
■ NT dollar inches up
The New Taiwan dollar turned stronger against its US counterpart yesterday, edging up NT$0.073 to close at NT$31.820 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$817 million, rising from Wednesday's US$708 million.
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