■ Cross-strait trade rises
Bilateral trade between Taiwan and China for the first two months of the year rose 10.3 percent over the same period last year to US$13.66 billion on increasing cross-strait exchanges, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said yesterday.
The figure accounted for 20.9 percent of Taiwan's total external trade during the period, compared to 19.7 percent a year earlier, the bureau said, citing official customs statistics.
For the period from January to February, Taiwan registered a trade surplus with China of US$5.71 billion, up 1.0 percent from a year earlier, it said.
Exports to China during the period rose 7.4 percent year-on-year to US$9.69 billion and imports from China were up 18.2 percent at US$3.98 billion.
The two-month shipments to mainland China accounted for 27.9 percent of Taiwan's total exports during the period, unchanged from a year earlier, the bureau said.
Imports from China during this period accounted for 13.0 percent of the island's total imports, up from 11.0 percent a year earlier, it added.
■ Evergreen reports profit drop
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Taiwan's biggest shipping line by market value, said profits fell 71 percent in the first quarter because of increasing competition.
Net income fell to NT$349.6 million (US$11 million), or NT$0.11 a share, in the three months that ended March 31, compared with a profit of NT$1.22 billion, or NT$0.4, a year earlier, the Taipei-based company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Evergreen Marine's first quarter sales fell 17 percent from a year earlier after an increase in capacity in the global shipping fleet forced the company and competitors including A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S to cut rates over the past year.
■ Chunghwa projects revenue dip
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) projected yesterday that revenues would drop 1.3 percent to NT$182.2 billion and net income would also fall 0.84 percent to NT$44.5 billion from a year ago.
In the first quarter, Chunghwa Telecom made NT$45.32 billion in revenues and NT$12.09 billion in net profits.
■ FET approves canceling shares
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (FET, 遠傳電信), the nation's second-biggest mobile operator, yesterday said its board approved a proposal to cancel 20 percent of its existing shares, thus returning NT$2 per share to shareholders.
The payout would total NT$7.7 billion.
The move is aimed at boosting the telecom company's return on equity and earnings per share in the future, the company said in a statement.
The new outstanding shares would be 3.1 billion shares, down from 3.87 billion shares.
Far EasTone said in last month that it planned to distribute NT$3.1 per share in cash dividends based on last year's financial results.
Meanwhile, Far EasTone said second quarter consolidated revenues would rise 3.2 percent to NT$16.28 billion and pre-tax income to 2.1 percent and NT$3.63 billion from last quarter.
■ NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar fell by NT$0.011 to NT$33.276 against the US dollar yesterday, a six-month low on speculation that investors are borrowing in the US currency to invest in higher-yielding assets overseas, the Taipei Forex Inc said.
The local currency has dropped 0.6 percent this month.
Turnover was US$1.204 billion.
The currency completed its fifth monthly loss as the nation's key interest rate of 2.875 percent, the second lowest in Asia after Japan, encouraged carry trades, where investors borrow in low-yielding currencies to buy higher yield assets abroad.
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