FPC Taiwan's No. 1 trader in 2004

Taipei, Aug. 26, 2005 (CENS)--Formosa Petrochemical Corp., boasting trading value of US$9.614 billion, was ranked as Taiwan's No. 1 trader last year, according to the statistics released by Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Inventec Corp. took the second place with US$8.942 billion and Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. (TSMC) the third with US$6.387 billion. Moreover, Inventec's export value for last year skyrocketed by 11.5 times from the corresponding value posted a year earlier, the highest of its kind among Taiwan's export-oriented manufacturers.

Others on the list of top-10 traders for the year included, in sequence, AU Optronics Corp., Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp., Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, China Steel Corp., Asustek Computer Inc., and Texas Instruments Inc.

BOFT's statistics showed that last year a total of 2,538 manufacturing companies on the island recorded foreign trade of over US$13 million, a standard set by BOFT for being honored publicly by the government. Of which, the top 10 were awarded with trophies as well.

Although many manufacturers in Taiwan complained about shrinking overseas market, some still enjoyed pretty good export records last year. During the year, Inventec witnessed export value of US$6.013 billion, a whopping increase of US$5.519 billion from 2003's US$494 million.

Taiwan 10-10 firms in terms of export growth in 2004
Rank	Firm	Export value & annual growth rate
		Export value (US$M)	Growth rate (%)
1	Invntec	6,012.95	1,115.38
2	Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co.	491.67	588.32
3	Toppoly Optoelectronics Corp.	246.44	392.19
4	Walsin Lihwa Corp.	302.04	374.76
5	Powerchip Semiconductor Corp.	114.34	348.39
6	Himax Technologies, Inc.	75.91	339.04
7	Nexgen Mediatech Inc.	177.53	302.69
8	Ardentec	750.17	318.86
9	Foxsemicon Integrated Technology Inc.	69.68	276.45
10	Kinsus Interconnect Technology Corp.	46.13	266.11

Source: BOFT