China to impose new duties
China said it will impose the so-called safeguard tariffs starting today on products such as stainless cold-rolled steel, hot-rolled thin steel and color-coated steel, the Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation said on its Web site. The tariffs will be in addition to the duties already in place.
China's decision will affect steel from Japan, South Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Malaysia, Taiwan, Germany and Kazakhstan, the Ministry said. The tariffs will expire on May 23, 2005.
The decision extends some tariffs China introduced in May after the US took similar measures. Under WTO rules, countries may introduce so-called temporary safeguards to restrict imports that damage, or threaten to damage, domestic producers.
Occupancy rises in Taipei
The number of unused housing units in the greater Taipei area has declined markedly over the past one year, thanks to the government's soft credit strategies which have helped stimulate transactions in the real estate market.
As of the end of October, the number of unused housing units in Taipei City and Taipei County as a whole totaled about 20,000, representing the lowest number in five years and a sharp decline from the figure of 34,000 posted a year earlier, according to a recent survey compiled by the private Yung Ching Rehouse Co (永慶房屋).
Yung Ching attributed this noticeable "clearance" of excess housing mainly to the government's lower-interest mortgage loan strategy and the general situation of lower interest rates.
Motorola wins contract
Motorola Inc, the world's No. 2 maker of mobile phones, said it won an order to supply a radio system to Taiwan's planned high-speed rail line.
The digital communications system will link dispatchers and train controllers on the 345-kilometer track between Taipei and the southern city of Kaohsiung, Motorola said in a statement. The trains will run at speeds of up to 300kph.
Taiwan High Speed Railway Corp (台灣高鐵), which is developing the railway, awarded contracts worth NT$95 billion (US$2.7 billion) for bullet trains, signals and other systems on the nation's first high-speed rail line to a Japanese consortium led by Toshiba Corp and Mitsubishi Corp in December 2000.
CPC sells surplus
The state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) (中油) sold gasoline overseas for the first time in a year as domestic production outstrips demand, company officials said.
CPC will export 30,000 tonnes of 91 RON grade gasoline for loading in the second half of December at its refinery in Taoyuan in northern Taiwan, the officials said.
CPC sold the cargo at a premium of more than US$2 a barrel to an Asian benchmark price for the fuel, the officials said. The company calculates its prices based on the average quoted by oil pricing service Platts. Chinese Petroleum last exported a gasoline cargo in November 2001.
CPC may start selling gasoline to overseas buyers on a monthly basis starting next year because of increased output from the new refinery unit, also known as a residual fluid catalytic cracker, the officials said.
NT dollar down
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday continued losing ground against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.024 to close at NT$34.781 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
The turnover was US$360 million, compared with the previous day's US$257 million.
Agencies
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