More US apples rejected
The Council of Agriculture yesterday said it has rejected imports of 1,680 cartons of US apples shipped from California after finding a codling moth larva in the shipment.
The larva was the second found in a shipment of apples from the US within a week.
The government last week announced a decision to temporarily suspend imports of US apples after a codling moth larva was found in a 196-carton shipment from Washington, an official at the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said.
"We will still inspect apples with US quarantine approvals issued before Nov. 8 but those issued on and after Nov. 8 will be rejected for quarantine here," the official said.
The ban will be lifted only when the US authority provides an explanation and quarantine procedures are improved, he said.
Taishin forms asset manager
Taishin Financial Holdings Co (台新金控) said it set up a NT$3 billion (US$87 million) asset management company to buy bad loans from its banking unit and other domestic lenders.
The asset management unit also plans to tap partnership opportunities with foreign companies, Taishin said in a statement.
The asset management company would initially buy bad loans from Taishin International Bank (台新銀行).
Banks' bad loans fell to 10.17 percent of total loans in the third quarter, from 10.83 percent three months earlier. That amount includes loans classified as non-performing and those at risk of turning sour.
UMC denies plan to end venture
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest maker of chips for other companies, said it isn't in talks to cancel a Singapore chipmaking venture with Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
``There's no such discussion between the two companies,'' UMC Chief Executive John Hsuan (宣明智) said yesterday in responding to a report by JP Morgan Chase & Co analyst John Brebeck, who cited remarks made by AMD executives.
Grammy to sell local operations
GMM Grammy Pcl, Thailand's biggest music-recording company, said it plans to sell its unprofitable investments in Taiwan, almost fours years after making its initial foray here.
"We have stopped investment there and began writing off investments," said Paiboon Damrongchaitham, Grammy's chairman, at a press conference. "Next year we'll try to find a new partner to buy our assets there."
Taifer plans to tap China market
Taiwan Fertilizer Corp (Taifer, 台肥) is planning to make inroads into China by first marketing its products made in Taiwan before establishing processing factories in China, Taifer sources said yesterday.
Although Taifer's plans to establish the factories in China remain unchanged, the company decided to crack the Chinese market by selling local product initially, mainly in agricultural areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, where high added-value farming is conducted, the officials said.
Annual sales of compound fertilizers to those provinces are expected to top 100,000 tonnes -- worth some NT$700 million (US$20 million) -- for the first few years, the Taifer officials estimated.
NT dollar slides again
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday continued to lose ground against its US counterpart, down NT$0.054 to close at NT$34.619 on Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$484 million, compared with the previous day's US$471.5 million.
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