Crude oil: OPEC may boost quotas
OPEC, which accounts for one-third of the world's oil supply, may raise output for the first time in two years by as much as 750,000 barrels a day, an OPEC spokesman said. OPEC is considering an increase of 500,000 barrels to 750,000 barrels a day, but not more, said the Vienna-based OPEC spokesman. Saudi Arabia is pushing for an increase, while the Iranians and Kuwaitis are against it, he said. Kuwait, Qatar, Venezuela and Iran have signaled that output should remain unchanged because global demand remains weak. The group will meet in Osaka, Japan, on Sept. 19 to decide on output levels for the fourth quarter.
Internet: US companies cut jobs
US Internet companies dumped more than 1,000 jobs in August, but that was far lower than the cuts a month earlier, a career consultancy reported Wednesday. In August, so-called dotcoms let go 1,193 employees, down from 1,750 cuts in July, noted Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a Chicago-based consultancy that has been tracking dotcom job reductions since December, 1999. August numbers brings this year's total sackings of US Internet companies to 10,550, a mere shadow of the bloodletting last year, when 87,795 were shown the door during the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Challenger is predicting that job cuts will total less than 16,000 by the end of this year. Last year, the consultancy reported 100,925 job cuts in the online business world.
Chip design: Intel invests in India
Intel Corp, the world's biggest chipmaker, said it plans to invest US$130 million to expand its chip-design unit in India. The money will be used to increase the number of engineers at its facility in the southern city of Bangalore to 3,000 in three years to five years from about 900, CEO Craig Barrett said in New Delhi. The investment underscores India's growing importance as a location for designing chips. Intel plans to start designing part of its Pentium and Xeon processors in the country, Barrett said. The latest investment is in addition to the US$150 million Intel has already invested in its Indian chip-design center. Revenue from chip design services in India is expected to reach US$800 million by 2005 from about US$150 million now, according to SR Dinesh, an analyst with researchers Frost & Sullivan.
Wafer printing: Nikon expects wider loss
Nikon Corp, the world's No. 1 maker of machines used to print circuitry onto silicon wafers, said its full-year loss will be wider than forecast because customers are delaying shipments of chip-making equipment. The Tokyo-based company's loss in the 12 months ending March 31 will probably be bigger than the ?2 billion (US$16.8 million) shortfall Nikon estimated in May, spokesman Yasuhiro Katagiri said. He declined to comment on a Nihon Keizai newspaper report that the loss will be ?5 billion. Chipmakers are asking to delay shipments of new equipment to curtail spending at a time when many executives are backing down from earlier forecasts that chip demand will rebound. Intel Corp CEO Craig Barrett on Tuesday said this holiday season may not lift demand for PCs. "Investing in chip-making equipment suppliers right now is very risky," said Makoto Sakuma, who manages ?100 billion in assets at Asahi Life Asset Management Co.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
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